Christmas Cookies, putting up the tree and making raviolis

I grew up cooking and making home made things. Sure, my mom served us boxed Kraft macaroni and cheese. I ate it and loved it. Some of my earliest memories are making roll out cookies with first my brother, Karl and I then later Ruth and Eric joining in.

For those who don’t know, roll out cookies are a sugar cookie batter that is simple to make. The tough part is getting the dough easy to handle. As a young kid we’d add flour and reroll the dough oblivious to the effect the extra flour had on the cookie.

After you roll it out, you use cookie cutters of different shapes and sizes, pressing them into the dough. With a clean spatula, you’d slide it under the future cookies careful not to ruin the shape of the cookie. Once on the cookie sheet, a little egg wash, then the sprinkles. When the sheet is full, into the oven it goes. About eight minutes later, cookies heaven.

Over the years my cookie making ability has broadened and somewhere along the line a particular cookie, the Pinwheel cookie has come to symbolize Christmas for me. It's annoying to make, not really that tasty, but full of Christmas memories. A cookie Teri has repeatedly said, “Why do you make that?” For some reason Nastia loves it too. I only make the Pinwheel cookies in December.

The Pinwheel cookie recipe is found in a Betty Crocker cookie book from the 60’s my mom had. One November several years ago I found a copy of the book in a cooking store closing and I picked it up. It is filled with cookies chocked full of sugar and butter. It’s a wonder we’re all still alive. To make the dough, the usual sugar, butter, vanilla, flour and eggs. Then the dough needs to rest. It’s really sticky and impossible to roll out. Half the dough is flavored with melted chocolate. Since I double the dough I make two separate batches and flavor one batch with chocolate. After the dough has rested it rolled out flat between waxed paper sheets. If you are lucky or adventurous you peel the waxed paper off one side and lay one on the other, if not you put it in the refrigerator until it cools. Later you roll it up, cut it a little thick is better, cook it and again it’s cookie heaven.

I baked all Sunday afternoon by myself until Elena got up around 3PM (yes 3 PM!) I asked if she wanted to help me with the roll out cookies. Not being an eight year old any more I’d lost touch with how to make them. Everytime I’d try to remove the cookie from the surrounding dough, I’d change Santa from a jolly elf into some sort of howling ghoul, more suited to Halloween than Christmas. Elena took over and She grew frustrated rather quickly with rolling out the dough as it would stick to the roller, rolling back on itself. I took over doing that and left her with the dough rolled out. She was able to get some almost normal looking Christmas cookies onto the baking sheet. She is also the one who made the Christmas dinosaurs. Elena stays for as long as the dough lasts and leaves as I put the last tray in the oven. Last year Nastia helped me. This year she went with Sean to help his family make raviolis. She made it sound like she would rather not go. I told her she should take the trip as a learning experience. Take notes and pictures, then come back and tell me all about it. She gave me a look like I’d just told her to do something crazy that would draw attention to her. When she came home later that night I asked her how it was, she said “it was fun.” Some much for pictures and learning to make raviolis.

I guess the girls are only cookie eaters, Nastia more than Elena and not much for cookie bakers. I’ve tried to instill in them memories like I have that they can look back on in the future when life has changed and doesn’t resemble anything like it is today. I get a little sad and quiet when I think back to times and people that are gone. The memories of them keep them alive a little longer. Now putting up the Christmas tree was its usual adventure. Teri wanted to put it up easy, for once. when people weren’t appropriately enthusiastic enough, the grinch in her appeared and she said, why even bother putting it up then!

I bring the tree down from the attic and I believe it is a Saturday. I put it up.I’ve talked about purchasing this tree several years ago and every time I put it up I remember LInus and Charlie Brown going to the Christmas tree lot and knocking on the fake trees. I can’t find what Linus says, it’s not that famous a line, maybe it’s just me and fake Christmas trees. Well, I piece the tree together, connect the strings of prehung lights (Oh, yes, I’m getting all warm and fuzzy inside aren’t you!) I’m sure you're asking why I don’t just go out and buy a real tree. After all Teri and I made a deal every other year we’d do a real tree. It’s a fact a real tree smells of pine and the memories of Christmas past, but when you go to the tree lot looking for a Grizwald sized Christmas tree (Christmas Vacation reference) and all you can afford and justify is a Charlie Brown size Christmas tree, you know that voice in the back of your head is saying, “The tree is only going to be up a few weeks, how can you justify spending that amount of money. Wouldn’t you rather buy someone another gift or pay for some of the gifts you’ve already bought. So you leave the lot empty handed, sure the eyes of the lot owner are boring into the back of your brain with thoughts very un-christmas. The assembled tree stands for a week sans (without) ornaments. Some time during that Saturday Teri and I have a loud discussion about the tree and decorating it. Nastia is in Orange County with Sean and his relatives, Elena is still in bed at two in the afternoon. She will set a new record of remaining in bed of 4:11 in the afternoon, obliterating her previous record of 3:37. She will still get up a cranky bitch that no one will want to talk to much less decorate a Christmas tree with. So quietly I will bring down a box of ornaments and lightly decorate the tree with ornaments that have a meaning to me. I will make the mistake of telling Teri this and she’ll ask, “What about everyone else?” Being a bit of a snarky bitch myself, I will reply, “Well they should have been here.” Merry Christmas CHARLIE BROWN!” Hark the herald angels song comes up, credits roll and it’s a wrap. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! Hoo, hoo, hoo!