Baking Memories

Last Friday started our baking day- one of our 12 days of Christmas. I spent last week planning what we would bake and making 6 different cookie doughs. I love to make candy, so that was planned for too!

As I would mix each cookie dough I would remember who I got the recipe from. I would remember the different times I've made the cookies and all the memories that surround each one. My thoughts turned to my MIL who has been gone for over 15 years now.

I remember as a young bride, trying to merge two family Christmas traditions into one, I had gone over to Vaughan's parents home and asked his mom for some recipes of cookies that Vaughan liked. I hand copied several. One of those recipes is "Holiday Fruit Cookies" I haven't made these forever. Vaughan and I love these, but my kids don't. So, I quit making them. But for some reason this year they were calling me! So, I bought the dates and candied cherries and included these in our baking day! These were the first cookies I started baking on Saturday! They smelled heavenly and tasted better than I remembered!

I thought of my MIL the whole time I was baking. What an amazing woman she is! I miss her. I always see her smile and hear her laugh when I think of her. I hope in sharing some of her recipes with my girls I am sharing her with them also. Only Hillary and Heather have any memory of her.

I think that is why baking at Christmas time is so important to me. It is so full of memories. As I mix up the Russian Teacakes I think of my Grandma Moore and going to her house on Christmas day. She always had a gift for everyone. I don't know how she did it on her meager income, but we all got something. Then she would pass around the treats she had made! When I first got married she gave me a bunch of recipes she had typed up. Russian Teacakes was one of those. I also think of *MY* mom, I remember her teaching me how to form them just right and putting the powdered sugar on them. (They must be formed in little log shapes, not round or square! But little log shapes. They just don't taste the same otherwise!)

I always think of my mom when we make our annual Peanut Butter Blossoms or Spritz cookies. I added the spritz cookies back to the menu this year. I found a recipe online that sounded good! It was! My mom taught me how to make these when I was little. Then one year she gave me an electric food shooter for Christmas. This makes making these a snap! The girls had fun making these for the first time! (How could you not have fun using a *food shooter*? Just the name sounds fun!)

And of course I think of my MIL when we make ginger creams! This is another recipe that was copied by me early in my marriage! They really aren't hard, but mine have never tasted as good as hers. But, I keep trying! They were better this year! Maybe she put her finger in the batter!

It was fun working along side my girls. Showing Hope how to measure flour and sugar as she made a special gift for Hillary. Teaching her how to *cut* in the shortening! ("This is hard Mom!")

I want to teach my girls all the things that will help them be good wives and mothers some day. I know I don't always have the patience and take the time to do what I should to help them.

I am grateful for two mother's in my life that have taught me what I know. I see them in my memory as I work in the kitchen. I hear them tell me little tricks and secrets to making the food and treats taste yummy. I am grateful for five daughters to pass this knowledge on to. I hope they realize the amazing heritage that they share. And how much LOVE is felt through *baking memories*!