Usually he did the rolling, cutting, and baking himself, after first checking with his two granddaughters (whom we shall call by their stage names: Tessa and Katie) to see if they were interested. Occasionally Tessa and Katie helped with this part too, but as they grew older their schedules seemed to become tighter. But in any case he found this enjoyable, cutting out the usual stars, bells, Christmas trees, snowflakes, wreaths, and holly leaves. It went fast, rotating three cookie sheets for about seven minutes in the oven. The recipe made about 70 cookies of the assorted sizes.
Then there was the decorating. He kept from year to year a large assortment of sprinkles, colored sugars, all sorts, hot cinnamon candies, and other decorating paraphernalia. And, of course, he made the standard butter cream frosting in quantity and divided it into four coffee cups for red, blue, yellow, and green colors. Now Katie and Tessa definitely wanted to take part, and it wouldn’t be a proper Christmas season without their artistic talents.
Nothing unusual here. Normal recipe, normal ingredients, normal shapes, normal baking, normal frosting … even normal grandkids (well, not exactly normal; there were and are the most beautiful and wonderful granddaughters anyone could ever have). Even the decorating, while done with love and laughter, was not unusual for close-knit happy families the world over. So what is the point of this sketch? Well, one year seemed to be different …
Tessa and Katie brought a friend with them and so there were even more hands and more creativity than usual. Of course, when they were done the helpers were all invited to take some of their “special” cookies with them. Tessa took several for her teachers at her dance studio, and the friend was persuaded to take a few for herself and her family.
One of the reasons he made the cookies in the first place was to include them on Christmas plates for the neighbors, along with whatever else he happened to make that year. Sometimes the plates included divinity, buckeyes, fudge, peanut brittle, fondant-stuffed dates, a fruitcake slice … whatever, but they always included these Christmas sugar cookies. This year it was fudge and some candied pecans. Now each of these long-time friends and neighbors had children and grandchildren who visited for Christmas, so he certainly couldn’t be skimpy with the cookies.
So that’s five primary recipients thus far, and at least seven secondary ones (not including neighbors’ extended families or other dance students).
Do you see where this is going?
Now it came to pass in those days that he and his beautiful wife of over 40 years (could that be … she couldn’t be over 40 herself?) had a regular dining group at a local restaurant. It seemed appropriate to share these goodies with them and with their regular waitress, so they made up four more Christmas plates, each including a respectable number of cookies.
Almost like the loaves and fishes, the cookies seemed never to run out. Yes, there were certainly less of them, but there always seemed to be enough for another plate. And another plate there was, because a kindly couple down the street reported that some mail had been mis-delivered to their address. Now know that this couple both had mobility problems and there were no visible Christmas lights or decorations on the house. So it was natural for him to run down and pick up the mail, and while doing so to deliver a Christmas plate to provide perhaps a bit of Christmas cheer.
Then Christmas arrived, and Tessa and Katie came over with their parents, and their daughter came over with her husband. And the eight of them enjoyed the usual Christmastime snack table, including the remaining beautifully-frosted bells, stars, Christmas trees, and holly leaves. Now, their son-in-law’s ailing mother has just returned from the hospital to her small apartment in a four-unit building, and they would be visiting her that Christmas afternoon. Soooo, what could be more natural than to create an extended Christmas plate, with goodies and foodstuffs, for them to take to her … complete with many of the remaining cookies, enough even for her to share with others in her building.
And when everyone left, and the house was pervaded by that after-everyone’s-gone quiet, and he and his wife hugged and said that it was the best Christmas ever …. well, there were a few cookies to be had with a nice cup of coffee.
Of course most of the recipients had other cookies and goodies, and the new cookies were intermingled with them in probably haphazard ways. There was nothing special about them. They didn’t have a famous brand name, they weren’t expensive, they didn’t elicit oohs and ahhs as works of professional decorators. But this broad distribution, rather than diluting their efficacy, strengthened them as they took their places in the Christmas dance. Just as a single luminary is just a milk jug with a candle in it but a sidewalk lined with them is a wonder to behold, so is a Christmas cookie among its fellows.
Far and wide these magical cookies went. Amazing what a little sugar, shortening, flour, two eggs (beaten), frosting and colored sprinkles can do in the hands of people of good will, young and old.
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