Monday, December 15, 2008

Cookie Bake Feast at Grandma's


Every year, we have a cookie bake at Grandma's house. She has nine grandchildren under the age of 10.

Needless to say, it's pandemonium.

This year, she tried to have supper and then cookie decorating.

But have you ever tried to seat nine children at a table filled with cookies and frosting and sprinkles and asked them to eat a bowl of chicken and noodles? I don't care if it is the best tasting chicken and noodles on the planet Earth, it's not gonna happen.

So... after the kids were done ignoring their chicken and noodles, the "decorating" began. It was so fun to see this little crowd of wee people smearing on as much frosting and sprinkles as their sugar cookies could hold. I think the frosting-to-cookie ratio was about 1000 to 1. Ditto the sprinkles.

In the center of the large table where they sat decorating, there was a beautiful silver platter. What was it for? Decorated cookies, presumably.

Here we discover another process error.

What parent (or grandparent) does not know that a decorated cookie must pass directly from the hands of the decorator into the mouth of the decorator? The lovely tray remained lovely -- and empty. Actually, to be truthful, it had about a dozen cookies on it by the end of the night, placed there long after multiple children were heard muttering, "My tummy is hurting."

As we cleaned up and the children went crazy chasing each other around and around through the rooms of the house (like they were high on sugar or something -- go figure) we noticed there was a shocking amount of white and yellow frosting left over. It looked as though it hadn't even been used.

One look at our children was all it took to discover yet another truth about Grandma's cookie bake. The best kind of frosting for decorating eating is whatever kind will turn your mouth, teeth, and tongue the brightest color. We had one blue child, one green, and one red. I had to actually use a toothbrush on my five-year-old's lips to keep him from looking cyanotic before we went to church on Sunday.

But, after the fun was over and the sugar-high was passed and the mess was cleaned up, we and all of my husband's brothers and sisters had a couple of cookies and warm feelings of family love to bring home. Cookie "Bake" at Grandma's is a great tradition.

Honestly, it was the sweetest part of the weekend.
- Midwest Mom

6 comments:

  1. Ah--I bet you'll all remember this day with a smile:)

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  2. Hello!

    All is well on my end. We had some trees down and our neighborhood and lost power for three days but it could have been worse!

    I loved this entry. Our cookie bake is Wednesday with our friends who have a little boy Matt's age. I imagine we will have similar messy memories.

    Sigh, I'm such a Christmas romantic, I'm going to go re read this entry now..

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  3. Sounds like a great time! Each year we decorate cookies and have an absolute blast. Everyone looks forward to it which is quite the accomplishment when you consider there are teenagers involved.

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  4. Great story! The kids must have loved that party. Good for them.

    I also read about your cookie decoration tradition with great interest.

    You have completely different attitude towards a cookie than in Sweden. Our cookies might be a little healthier but yours better looking and funnier for the kids.

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  5. What a fun cookie party..yum...love cookies..my bum on the other hand...does not..lol....

    Wishing you and your family Happy Holidays!! :)

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