Christmas Countdown - Day 23

Choosing the recipes for "Cookie Day" this year: Since my children were small, I have done "Cookie Day."

We take one day and do all our Christmas baking... and I do mean all. All the cookies, all the bars, all the quickbreads, all the candies, all the yeast breads, all the chocolates. Everything. When the children were at home, we did it one day during the week. I'd excuse them from school and we'd go at it. Start around 7:00am and not quit until it was all done. My, my, my. The house smelled yummy. Visions of sugar plums dancing in your head had nothin' on us. We had the scents of the season wafting through every floor of the house. Not to mention the real goods laid out on every countertop.

I remember the first year Spencer joined us. He kept asking Josh, Jon and Katie, "Really? Your mom lets you miss school?" You should have seen his face when we told him he was coming, too. It was a good thing I had a massive kitchen back then. Two teenagers, two tweens, and me... all in the kitchen throwing flour and sugar around like there was no tomorrow. The Captain was the only one to miss it. He called I don't know how many times from work just to ask, "whatcha doin' now?"

Times have changed. I don't need to do near as much baking as in years past -- plus I work a Monday-Friday job now, so it'll have to happen on a Saturday. None of the children live at home anymore. Katie has already asked about it. She's planning on coming. I don't know if Jon or Spencer will be interested in the production work. I'm thinking they'll prefer to just show up for the consumption part of the process.

Oh well, time to go through my recipes. Choose the goodies for this year. Make a grocery list and compare it to the budget. Cookie Day... here I come!