it's not christmas without...
welcome to day 6 of #12daysofblogging! if you're just joining us, you can find out more about the christmas linkup here. today's prompt is "it's not christmas without...". get inspired and spread the christmas spirit!for me, it doesn't feel like christmas is quite here until the santa cookies have been made. santa cookies are a tradition started by my grandma hooley. all the girls in the family, when they're old enough, get to participate in the making of the traditional santa cookies. and this is an important task, let me tell you that right now.
because santa cookies are only allowed to be eaten on christmas day, at the hooley family christmas gathering. that's our dessert. no pie or cake or pudding, just santa cookies. and it's an art form, making these things. mouths must be painted on delicately, sugar must be colored just the right shade of red for cheeks and hats, and the frosting mixed to just the right consistency for the santa man's beard. so yea, there are years of training that go into making the cookies. that's not an exaggeration. i'm 26 and still not an expert.but the real miracle of the whole thing is how many of us manage to get together every year. the cousins are all busy and are somewhat scattered, and yet somehow we manage to find a date that works for 90% of us year after year after miraculous year.this year is the first year that we didn't have grandma managing the troops. and we missed her. and for about two seconds, we wondered if santa cookies were going to happen at all. and then we realized, of course they'll happen, because it's not christmas without santa cookies, and grandma wouldn't want us to drop the ball on this. not to mention the general mutiny that would occur if we couldn't procure santa cookies at the end of christmas dinner.so we did it. we did it without our fearless leader (although the chief cookie taster aka grandpa was there and did a bang-up job). i've finally managed to perfect the recipe for the dough...my dad even said i've replicated it as good as he's ever tasted. there will be enough cookies to go around, and we only spilled one bottle of food coloring all over the kitchen. i think she'd be proud of us.
and really, one bottle of food coloring is such a small price to pay for making sure christmas gets here safely.[inlinkz_linkup id=349368]
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