Christmas Cookies

Year 5-Day 347: Today...I am grateful for Christmas cookies. 

I know that the season is full of sweets, but Christmas cookies are so much more than a sweet treat. The image is from Pinterest. It seems to capture the fun, the family and the festivity of Christmas cookies.

There are cookie recipes that are handed down from generation to generation. I never seem to have much time for baking, but when I do... it is Grandma Guttendorf's Pride of Iowa recipe that begins the baking. 

Other favorites include Sweedish/Russian Teacakes (A shortbread cookie rolled in powdered sugar), Peanut Butter Cookies with a Hershey's Kiss (the Bisquick recipe), Molasses Cookies (for my Randy) and No-Bake Cookies. These say family, feasting and fellowship. 

There are so many delicious recipes available with the internet and my collection of cookbooks, but what makes Christmas cookies special is more than a good recipe. What memories accompany the making, baking and tasting? Was it grandma's kitchen... or a college friend's home? Did broken cookies require taste testing or were there stringent rules about not eating the inventory?

The smell of a home with baked goods inside is a Christmas delight. The scent of the vanilla. That unique smell that accompanies a favorite cookie. The warmth in the kitchen, no matter how fiercely the winds may blow. 

The best thing about Christmas cookies is the sharing. We are always blessed with some goodies over the season. Since baking always seems to take a back seat to other things... they are a sweet treat. 

Imagine a Bethlehem in 2000 years ago. No room in the inn. An expectant mother and nervous father who knew that she needed a place to rest... a place to deliver the child that was coming soon. Willing to take any safe place to lay their heads. Talk about modest accommodations. 

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. -Luke 2:7

I wonder if the innkeeper had a wife. I wonder if she sent food out to the stable. I wonder if the scent of the inn's food fare drifted to the stable. I wonder if there was a sweet treat sent out to the new little family after the birth of the child. 

Joseph and Mary were rejected by other innkeepers with full rooms. The innkeeper who made room is the one who received the gift of the Christ-child being born at his place. The innkeeper offered a place when others failed to respond to their troubles. Women cannot resist a newborn, so if the innkeeper had wife... they had a little food shared. There were no "Grandma Guttendorf Pride of Iowa Cookies" but I bet they were offered the best of her Bethlehem pantry. 

As we bake, share, receive goodies and remember baking with our grandmothers and mothers, don't lose sight of the gift. Hospitality is an act of service and a gift. Embrace it. Delight in it. Make some new memories this year. 

Time to dig out the "Pride of Iowa" recipe. Anyone who has received an FMC church cookbook has it in their collection. It is a little different from all the other oatmeal cookie recipes... and is always a hit. I will remember Grandma Opal Maxine and my own mother making and baking them. Mama Ina Mae always let us "help", no matter the extra work we created with our assistance. 

Today...I am grateful for Christmas cookies.. the smell, the taste and the memories.