Sugar Cookie Moments

One of my favorite memories from childhood was making sugar cookies with my mother.  After chores were finished she would pull out the big yellow bowl and add ingredients to it such as flour, sugar and eggs.  Once the dough was ready, she would give each of us kids our own pile of dough to roll, cut, play with and eat.  The memories of those times fill my mind with the fragrant smells of buttery sweet and a sense of safety and comfort.

So, when the MyMy asked if we could make sugar cookies as her birthday treat for her class, I knew that although the day had been long and the week had been so busy that she was also in need of those sweet feelings to calm her soul.

This year is a big year for the MyMy.  She is turning 12 and with that, she is leaving the stage of childhood that will only be lived through her memories now.  Although the MyMy has been excited to turn 12 and to have new experiences that come with the age, she has also been very hesitant about it too.  She has enjoyed being our little girl, and frankly, we have enjoyed it also.  Like her, I am not sure if I want that childhood stage to pass either.

So, with those thoughts in mind.  We pulled out the mixer, set the butter on the counter to soften and began the task of making dough, rolling out cookies, baking, deciding on the color of frosting and then decorating the little sugar cookie men with candy and chocolate chips late into the evening.

The MyMy was still in need of assistance from me in learning the art of making, baking and decorating sugar cookies in which I was grateful, because soon, she will be able to pull out the recipe and mixer and make cookies all on her own.

After making cookies, I sent the MyMy to bed and started the task of cleaning up.  I was glad to have that time to myself to reflect on her cute little life and how she has grown and wondered where the time went.  I realized that my time left with her will go quickly too and recommitted myself to making sure that there will be opportunities for sugar cookie moments- meaning letting life and all of it's deadlines go to spend time with a beautiful girl who is growing up much too fast.

Happy Birthday MyMy!  I promise, you and I both will enjoy your 12th year.

Christmas 2012

It has been 9 years since I have been home for Christmas, and like the Christmas song, it is always in my dreams, so it was a nice surprise when Derrick found out that he had a couple of days off.  We packed up the car and headed up north in hopes that our girls could experience a white Christmas.

Growing up, Christmas Eve was my family's big holiday.  The evening started with a several course Finnish Christmas dinner set by candlelight.  I always loved having the room only lit by candles- so magical.  After dinner, Joulupukki, the Finnish Santa Claus, always surprised us with presents on the doorstep.  The evening always ended with my dad playing Christmas music on his accordion and all of us kids dressing up and performing the nativity.

This year was no different, except for the fact that the grandchildren now perform the nativity.

We also had snow.

Christmas morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast, compliments of Grandma, then took off to Soldier Hollow for some tubing.  Fun!

 That evening, we took the girls to Temple Square to see the lights for the very first time.  Beautiful!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas too!

Italian Cooking Class

Aunt Ani spent a week in Italy taking cooking classes and decided to use those skills in teaching all of us the finer points of Italian cooking.  The girls learned how to make pasta from scratch by making a volcano out of flour and filling the cavity with eggs and olive oil.  After mixing, kneading and resting the dough, the girls were able to roll and cut the dough into long pasta pieces.

We also learned how to make Italian pizza which is a little different from what we know, but very yummy.

When Aunt Ani cooks, there is always a enough food to feed an army.  We had pasta with a meat sauce, pizza, three different kinds of bruchetta and two salads- one that mixed cantaloupe with salami, olive oil and chives- very tasty.

Grazie, Aunt Ani- we loved being Italian for an evening!