Sunday, December 20, 2009

Memphis, Tennessee
Cooper-Young


Max, right, watches Christmas videos with his cousins Lily, left, and Forrest, center. This is the first of several holiday parties.


There is an old holiday tradition in my son-in-law Brian's family. Each year they break out molds, bake and decorate Santa Claus and Christmas Tree shaped cookies. Shannon, center, works on a mold while Brian's mother Beverly, left, and sister-in-law Amy look on. There is much discussion between them on how the cookies should be rolled and patted so that they don't become too hard.


Brian prepares potato soup  — he is a wonderful cook and everyone looks forward to his creations — for the evening meal and ...


... puts out the condiments to add to it.


The cousins are excited. There are three computers in the house this evening. They can play the interactive internet game, Club Penguin, all at the same time and watch what each other is doing on their individual screens. Max's computer is in another room so he dashes back and forth checking on Forest and Lily while their mother Amy assists Forrest.


The cookies are finally out of the oven. Everyone begins decorating them with food coloring, icing, sprinkles and coconut. 



Beverly and Shannon finish decorating the last of the cookies. There is a family joke that while the cookies are pretty, they are hard and not very good. I disagree. I think they are great.



At the end of the evening after dinner, Max plays Christmas music while gifts are exchanged.
Photographed with a Leica M8


2 comments:

Beverly said...

such a wonderful recollection of the evening...you are a great story teller, and the photos added just the thing to make me smile and will keep these memories fresh...

Kevin said...

To clarify about the Santa cookies... at times they have been a bit hard. The dough is extremely tricky. And after a couple of days, you could build houses with them. But fresh Santa cookies done right are the best cookies I've ever had. And the taste is only an extra benefit from the joy of making them.

I can't recall the first time we made these, as it was just something we always did around Christmas time when I was a child/teenager. They took a hiatus for a while, but I am so glad that these cookies are again a part of Christmas.