TRL: Christmas cookies

When I was growing up, in addition to Christmas songs and oyster stew at my grandmother's house on Christmas Eve, there was one other thing you could count on: many homemade traditional desserts. It wasn't surprising to follow up our rich dinner with fudge, divinity, and the piece de resistance: Christmas cookies.

As my grandmother and her grandchildren have all grown older, the task of making of these Christmas treats has fallen more and more to the younger generations. Instead of waiting for her to make them just prior to Christmas, while we're all together during Thanksgiving weekend my siblings and I share the task of stirring the fudge and we pull out the cookie cutters my dad remembers from his childhood.

A couple of Thanksgivings ago, I woke up late the morning after Thanksgiving, and headed toward the kitchen. When I got there, I discovered nearly 10 people crowded around the island in the kitchen. My dad and his brother stood on one side, rolling out sugar cookie dough while people on the other side wielded knifes and sprinkles, frosting the finished products. As my aunt and grandmother made more dough and frosting, the army of family who were frosting cookies called out suggestions to my dad and uncle about which cookie shapes they should cut out next. When my mom requested a cookie that they didn't have a cutter for, my dad custom-sculpted that cookie shape for her.

If anyone had turned to me at that moment and asked what I wanted, I would've answered that I didn't want anything more than what I had in that moment.