One of our family traditions growing up involved baking. We made tons of cookies for Christmas of course but we also made sugar cookies for every other holiday that isn't necessarily associated with cookies. Whether it was St. Patrick's Day or Halloween, we were baking and decorating sugar cookies. They were always made from scratch - no cookie "rolls" of dough here! The frosting was also homemade which made it even better for licking off of your sticky fingers!
The fun started with rolling out the dough and using some of Mom's hundreds of cookie cutters to pierce the dough in fun shapes and sizes. Every once in awhile, if you were lucky, you could sneak a yummy taste of the raw dough from the scraps left behind. With spatula in one hand and cookie sheet in the other, either Kelly or I would scoop the dough to the sheet inevitably getting flour all over the floor. Once they were cooled properly on the wire rack, the real fun began.
Most decorating days involved friends or neighborhood kids. I can honestly say I every single time I decorate a cookie now I think of our neighborhood friend "Nega". If I remember correctly "Nega" means "little niece" in Brazilian. Her real name is Luciana. Nega's family was not as country or home-grown as ours and we always felt Nega longed for the family life we provided. I think that's why, more often than not, she was at our house! And you could bet, if we were making cookies, Nega was right there in the middle of all the craziness!
Complete with homemade frosting, sprinkles, chocolate chips and usually some other random supplies we would begin! The frosting was always divided up into different bowls with various shades of that holiday's colors. Mixing the frosting into interesting shades of purple or blue was always a challenge! Usually Kelly, Nega, Mom and I would sit around our round wooden kitchen table and start decorating. For week's later, frosting and sprinkles could be found in the crack of that table! Sweet little reminders of the fun we had around that table!
As the years passed the tradition began to lose ground some as we grew "too old" to be decorating cookies in high school. We would still make cookies for Christmas and school parties but the smaller holidays began to pass by cookie-less. Once Kelly went off to college and Tyler remained home with us, the tradition was revived. Tyler's decorating skills so closely resembled Nega's - the more sprinkles, the better! And oh boy the mess a two year old can make while decorating cookies! Whew!
As I went off to college, I would occassionally introduce various roommates to our holiday tradition. One year I had a little helper from the four year old girl I was babysitting in college. Even as I graduated and moved on to start my career, I would still make cookies for some holidays. I figured out really fast that my colleagues and friends had not grown up with the same tradition and absolutely marveled over the detail of the cookies!
Cooper and I have continued the tradition (as has my sister and her kids). We don't bake sugar cookies for every holiday but we certainly don't miss many. And this weekend was no exception. With Halloween tomorrow and cookies needed for school, I reverted back to my roots. Out came the flour and rolling pin, cookie sheets and sprinkles. Coop is usually willing to help for the first 5-10 minutes and then he abandons me with the 80+ undecorated cookies. Today though, he was my "sprinkle master". He probably helped for a good 25 minutes before getting bored this time.
The end result - a sea of beautiful and some overly sprinkled Halloween cookies. Perfect for little fingers to devour at the Halloween party tomorrow. Also good for my colleagues who are trying so desperately to lose weight! (hehe! I'm trying to sabotage their weight loss efforts so I can win the contest!)
Here are a few pictures of our Halloween cookies:
The fun started with rolling out the dough and using some of Mom's hundreds of cookie cutters to pierce the dough in fun shapes and sizes. Every once in awhile, if you were lucky, you could sneak a yummy taste of the raw dough from the scraps left behind. With spatula in one hand and cookie sheet in the other, either Kelly or I would scoop the dough to the sheet inevitably getting flour all over the floor. Once they were cooled properly on the wire rack, the real fun began.
Most decorating days involved friends or neighborhood kids. I can honestly say I every single time I decorate a cookie now I think of our neighborhood friend "Nega". If I remember correctly "Nega" means "little niece" in Brazilian. Her real name is Luciana. Nega's family was not as country or home-grown as ours and we always felt Nega longed for the family life we provided. I think that's why, more often than not, she was at our house! And you could bet, if we were making cookies, Nega was right there in the middle of all the craziness!
Complete with homemade frosting, sprinkles, chocolate chips and usually some other random supplies we would begin! The frosting was always divided up into different bowls with various shades of that holiday's colors. Mixing the frosting into interesting shades of purple or blue was always a challenge! Usually Kelly, Nega, Mom and I would sit around our round wooden kitchen table and start decorating. For week's later, frosting and sprinkles could be found in the crack of that table! Sweet little reminders of the fun we had around that table!
As the years passed the tradition began to lose ground some as we grew "too old" to be decorating cookies in high school. We would still make cookies for Christmas and school parties but the smaller holidays began to pass by cookie-less. Once Kelly went off to college and Tyler remained home with us, the tradition was revived. Tyler's decorating skills so closely resembled Nega's - the more sprinkles, the better! And oh boy the mess a two year old can make while decorating cookies! Whew!
As I went off to college, I would occassionally introduce various roommates to our holiday tradition. One year I had a little helper from the four year old girl I was babysitting in college. Even as I graduated and moved on to start my career, I would still make cookies for some holidays. I figured out really fast that my colleagues and friends had not grown up with the same tradition and absolutely marveled over the detail of the cookies!
Cooper and I have continued the tradition (as has my sister and her kids). We don't bake sugar cookies for every holiday but we certainly don't miss many. And this weekend was no exception. With Halloween tomorrow and cookies needed for school, I reverted back to my roots. Out came the flour and rolling pin, cookie sheets and sprinkles. Coop is usually willing to help for the first 5-10 minutes and then he abandons me with the 80+ undecorated cookies. Today though, he was my "sprinkle master". He probably helped for a good 25 minutes before getting bored this time.
The end result - a sea of beautiful and some overly sprinkled Halloween cookies. Perfect for little fingers to devour at the Halloween party tomorrow. Also good for my colleagues who are trying so desperately to lose weight! (hehe! I'm trying to sabotage their weight loss efforts so I can win the contest!)
Here are a few pictures of our Halloween cookies:
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!
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