Building The Love Shack

I spent a long day in the kitchen today. I started out making a Rum and Eggnog Cheesecake.  From there I went to making a cookie recipe that I have been looking for over thirty years.  That’s when the First Ghost of Christmas Past came to visit.

When I was a child I had an Aunt who made the most amazing cookies. Every Christmas she showed up with trays of cookies in her hand. Each year when she would arrive in with her tray of cookies, all of the kids would run to the table to see what she had made, hoping she had made our favorite ones. She always did.

Her cookies with me at age five was my favorite part of family visiting.

Over the years I have found many of her recipes, but for all these years I was never able to find her  Polish Kolacky Cookie Recipe.  Then one day, they appeared on Facebook.

The reason I could never find the recipe was because I could not remember what they were called, only what they tasted like. At first bite fresh out of the oven, I was reminded of my Aunts famous cookies.

As the day progressed on, and batch after batch of cookies came out of the oven, I was visited by the Second Ghost of Christmas.

This time it took me back to when my children were small.

Every year for many many years, we had a cookie baking weekend before Christmas. My daughter’s friends would come over, there were eight in total with bags packed for the weekend.

On Friday evening we would start making cookie dough and get it ready for the next days baking. We would bake all day Saturday and Sunday.

In the evenings, we would have a big slumber party in the family room. We would order pizza, make popcorn and watch Christmas Movies.

On Sunday evening, they would go home with a turkey platter full of cookies for each of their homes.

I still see those girls. They are adults now, and they too remember our cookie baking weekend.

Then the Third Ghost of Christmas came to see me. The Ghost of Christmas Future.

As I was baking away and sharing samples of my baking with Romeo and Juliette, it brought me to the Christmas yet to come.

The Children will be here, all grown up now. The in-laws will come. The friends and their parents will come.

I will cook for three days to feed everyone. The meals will start on Christmas Eve and run through Boxing day.

Before that, there have been Christmas lunches that have already started. A potluck at work with the girls on my unit and the nonstop delivery of cookies and candies that come every year from the families of our Residents.

There is another cheesecake to bake for the girls at work and more cookies to still be baked. For me, Christmas is feeding everyone. My favorite thing about Christmas is still having everyone together, watching them talk and eat.

The baking takes longer to do now, without all those extra little hands to help but it still means Christmas to me.

My back hurts from standing all day. My feet are kind of swollen. That happened every year when the children were young and I stood for those three-day baking. I never complained then and I’m not complaining now. That too is just part of the getting ready for Christmas.

I’m now ready for a bubble bath and I think maybe a glass of wine.

Romeo and Juliette are resting now with their bellies full of cookie samples. I would say we are all tired from our busy day.

The house smells lovely from the smell of the fresh-baked goods, but I have to admit the best part of the day was the visits from the Ghost of Christmas.

Ps. I’m so glad all the Ghost who came were kind.