The Ghost of Christmas Past

When I was a child, my mother and I used to bake cookies for Christmas presents. In the kitchen of that house, the mixer was actually built into the countertop. I thought this was the coolest thing ever. My mother would put me up on the counter and press a button and up would pop the mixer! Christmas magic! And then after a period of several hours, we would both end up covered in flower with an assortment of rocking horses, soldiers, trees, snowmen, angels, santas, and stars. The lovely part about this is we had Hannukah cookie cutters too so we made dreidls, stars of david, and menorahs for our Jewish friends. We had colored sugars, icings, those little silver ball thingies that probably cause cancer, cinnamon stars, and green and red sprinkles.Then we would put them into piles and wrap them.



Well I can't tell you how long it's been since my mother and I baked cookies together. We cook together about three or four times a year, but neither one of us has baked together, well, I can't even remember it really. Once I was tall enough, I baked on my own-I made teddy bear bread, tartlettes, and fairy cakes. I was such a little bakerina that one time my father's receptionist gave me some of her cookies and said if I could guess the secret ingredient she would give me the recipe. I took a single bite and said "Potato chips." She was surprised, but I had already made potato chip cookies and dismissed them in favor of making snickerdoodles and chocolate crinkles from the Betty Crocker cookbook.





But since we were having Christmas here, my mother and I decided to make cookies. Since we both love gingerbread, we made Joe Frogger's from the Betty Crocker cookbook. (Notice how I am not putting up the recipe for fear of a lawsuit, but you can find the recipe easily enough yourselves.) Just so you don't think all I am doing is lazing by the fire. Here are the results of our efforts.

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