Christmas is a wonderful time of year. For me, it has always been special. When Christmas comes around, I always try to look past the commercialism and retail hoopla that abounds and I look back on my past. Christmas for me is a time of nostalgia

As a young boy growing up in Ohio, Christmas was always something special! The Christmas season brought a much-anticipated (and welcome) break from school. For us, there was lots and lots and lots of beautiful snow to play in. As a youngster, we loved the snow because we got to build snowmen with funny faces and hats and we got to flop on the ground and make snow angels. We built snow forts and there were numerous (but friendly) snowball fights and we got cold and wet but enjoyed every second of it. Looking back on it from the perspective of adulthood, I realize that while my brother, sister and myself were having all this fun, my Dad, bless his heart, was reduced to shoveling the snow from the driveway. While he did join us occasionally in a snowball fight and building a snowman, the season probably wasn’t as joyous for him as it was for us!

The Christmas Season is a time for family and for sharing love. There was Christmas music and way too many parties. There was always a family get together when I got to see Aunts and Uncles and Cousins I hadn’t seen since last year. We got together, ate so much food that we were sick for a day or so and the adults all had too much to drink but it was that time of the year and we enjoyed ourselves.

The Christmas season also brought joy. There were two department stores in my hometown, which decorated their windows in animated Christmas scenes. Since they were across the main street from one another, they always tried to out do each other and it was really an adventure when my Mom and Dad would bundle us up and take us there to see the windows. Our young eyes could barely take in the wonder of the cute animated elves and beautiful snow, white angels who mysteriously flew across the scene. We were so proud when we spotted the thin wires which held them. There were more gaily wrapped presents than we could ever count, all under revolving Christmas Trees with blinking lights, topped with majestic stars of pure white.

And every year there was a toy train somehow tied into the Department Store’s theme. I remember the old-fashioned locomotive would go from window to window, chugging in and out of the wondrous animated scenes laid out before our eyes. And, as always, in the end, there was a window with Santa Claus which reminded us that we needed to visit that jolly old elf, so we would go inside one of the stores and while my Dad disappeared (we didn’t know at the time but he went shopping for all those presents we would get on Christmas Morning), Mom and us kids would wait in line for our turn to talk to Santa. It seems we wanted everything we could see. Toys, toys and more toys! It was a drear Christmas morning when we opened that gaily-wrapped gift and found underwear or socks and I know Dad always smiled at the necktie he got but would never wear.

But my fondest memory of the Christmas Season is of my Mom’s Christmas cookies. I guess it was about two weekends before Christmas she would wrap us up in our warmest clothing and tell us to go out and play in the snow. Dad would be shoveling the sidewalk and keeping an eye on us while Mom worked in the kitchen producing a labor of love. I can remember savoring those wonderful smells and looking in the window to see how she was progressing. I remember her smiling back at the three little faces pressed to the cold window glass before turning back to the cookies. Our mouths would water and, more than once one of us would have to go inside for something or other but Mom always made sure we got back outside until she was done.

Finally, Dad would put away his shovel and call us inside. There, arranged on the counter was such an incredible feast that we couldn’t take it all in. Cookies! Cookies! And more cookies! There were cookies shaped like Santa Claus colored with red and white frosting! More cookies in the shape of Christmas trees covered with green colored sprinkles! Star shaped cookies and cookies in the shape of angels. We all got to choose one cookie before they were put aside. Only one cookie because more would spoil our dinner. But which cookie? Which cookie would be the one which would have to last us until after dinner? Which cookie?

This challenge is for you to make Christmas Cookies. What kind of cookies did your Mom make way back when? We’d love to see them so post your cookies here!

Happy Holidays!

Acadie	Birgit
DAisy	Karen
Cindi	Susan (I got hungry!)
Steve