Christmas Memories

My Grandma and I would always spend at least one weekend in between Thanksgiving and Christmas baking cookies. She would always make cookies that people would request. She was one of the best bakers I knew. She always made them with love. She past her love of baking onto me. I still enjoy hearing the enjoyment people get out of personalized packages of cookies. I have continued the tradition of providing family members with the packages of cookies that they have enjoyed for years.

Our weekend of baking cookies also included staying up until all hours enjoying junk food and playing games. It was the only time of year that I saw my Grandma drink an alcoholic beverage. She loved to make rum balls and I now believe it was so she could enjoy a beverage that she did not enjoy another time of year. She would enjoy at the most two glasses of rum and coke. She has also passed the love of making people smile by making them specific packages of cookies that they have mentioned over the years of enjoying and missing.

My Grandmother has been gone for four Christmases now, but the tradition continues on with me and her great grandson. I have put aside one weekend in between Thanksgiving and Christmas to bake cookies for all the special people in my life. I also include cookies that I did not originally make with my Grandma. My son has helped to make the Christmases special because he enjoys sharing his time passing the cookies out to church members who are home bound.

He may be only seven, but he has great compassion and by allowing him to be free for one weekend, he has learned to be compassionate towards people who have no family. Sharing Christmas traditions that are simple such as baking lots of cookies allows for families to have memories that last a life time. I remember many years where my Grandma only baked cookies because it meant we would be having fun together. It was one time a year that she would allow herself to be what she deemed improper.

My Grandma has been gone for fours, but her love for us lives on in the memories that she left of spending a weekend pigging out on junk and playing games in between batches of cookies. I have past this love onto my son and hopefully it is a joy that he remembers when he is much older. He does not remember much of his great Granny, but he does remember being very little and her directing our baking from her bed. She always wanted us to remember the less fortunate people especially the ones who could not leave their home.

So this Christmas season, take time to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Christmas is all about having fun with your children, because they do not stay litte forever.