Saturday, December 17, 2011

Cookies & Christmas

Even though it would be a tradition Gwenn, my youngest would love, I don't bake for Christmas. I'm not a fan of baking, it's precise and messy. I'm ADD and following recipes is not my forte. Besides that, I am Celiac and baking gluten free cookies is tricky. I have virtually stopped baking since being diagnosed Celiac. I'm a decent cook, but that's because I make up my own recipes. Every year I have pulled off gingerbread houses, but only because it has been the activity at Teale's party. This year we didn't do gingerbread houses for Teale's birthday, so I decided I would take some time and make cookies with Gwenn. It started out fine, but I had too many ideas in my head and we got off track.  We started the dough for the gingerbread houses, but it turned out we were missing an ingredient. While Mark was out, he could pick it up, so we moved onto a different recipe. Making many spritz cookies, we ate almost as many as we made! Then Mark got home with the molasses for the gingerbread houses and we went back to that. Somehow four or five hours later, I'm burnt out, Gwenn seems to be also and we abandon the many other cookie recipes we had planned on trying. So maybe I failed, the tradition I planned on starting today, ending with one plate of the same kind of cookies. Oh well, we spent a lot of time together and there is always tomorrow. We can't all be efficient, amazing bakers, who create beautiful plates of Christmas cookies. We can't all have our shopping done and wrapping finished before Christmas eve. Mark and I are often behind, but somehow we always pull it together in the end. With one week to go, may you find the real joy in the season, spending time with your loved ones!