Christmas Baking

Things in our kitchen have been rather busy of late. I love to bake, and it wouldn't be Christmas if the mixer wasn't going, the oven wasn't on, the counter covered in dirty dishes, flour, and pans of cookies, candy, etc.

At Jon's suggestion, I tried to cut down this year, but it's so hard. I love to bake, and I keep thinking, "I'll just make one more thing." But really, I think I've done less this year; it's just been over a shorter period of time.

Our kitchen has produced thus far three kinds of Christmas cookies, several "cookies in a jar," cinnamon rolls, and something else that I won't name since it will be used as gifts for some who read this blog.

Jon and Jeremiah even got into the baking mode with some sugar cookies. As I was starting to roll out the dough, Jon says, "What are you doing?!" I replied with the obvious answer. "I'm rolling out the cookie dough." "No," he says, "I'm supposed to do that. It's tradition!"

Now I've heard that the tradition for the Kroesches growing up was Mom made the dough, Dad rolled it out, and Dad and the kids cut out the cookies. However, we've been married for 9 years (9 years, thank you very much) and this is the first time it's been offered in our household. Granted, I don't make cut-out sugar cookies every year, but still. How was I supposed to know we were starting that tradition this year?

So, Jon rolled out the dough, and Jeremiah "helped" to cut them out--for about 5 minutes. Then he was more interested in chewing on the cookie cutters. (However, he loved eating the finished product.) But it was a good start to what I hope will be a yearly tradition that will last in his memories when he's older.

So, after today, I'm done with my Christmas baking. Well, maybe I'll make just one more thing . . .