"Sweet" Family Traditions

Family traditions tell a lot about us. They are the tell-all signs that show what kind of a family you come from. It can bring great memories of those that started the traditions and it gives us something to look forward to around the holidays. As a child growing up, holidays were all about cooking and getting together as a family.

When my mother was alive, we always had a family get together on Christmas Eve. As children, we were always given one present on Christmas Eve morning. It was always an article of clothing to wear to dinner later that evening. Knowing that it was clothing never put a hindrance on the event, we loved the fact that we got to open something early and our mother loved dressing up and going out to dinner on Christmas Eve. I remember that getting into some restaurants, even with reservations, was tricky. They were either busy or they closed early. But, she loved the hustle and bustle of it all and the crowds made it even better for her. That was truly one enjoyment that she had each year. Afterwards, we would go back home and have a little party. There were always plenty of appetizers and sweets to eat. One of the staples that we always had was punch with ice cream sherbet in it. The adults usually had alcoholic beverages. Come to think of it…that was the only time that I ever saw my father drink alcohol.

On Christmas Day, we never had to decide who was hosting the dinner, we knew! My mother cooked for everyone that would come, so we always had a crowd. But after her death, my brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles all started their own family traditions. It is funny how one person seems to hold the family together and once they are gone, everyone just goes their own way. One of my biggest hopes is that my children, my grandchildren and their children will cherish family traditions. I want each of them to be part of that "glue" which holds our family together.

As for me, I also love cooking and I like to think that for my immediate family, I am the one that pulls everyone together for the holidays. Luckily for me, my daughter-in-laws also love the holidays and I know that they will keep the traditions going, even after I am gone. Cooking was always exciting for me. From an early age, I would pull up a chair and watch my mother cook. Mama never told me to get down and never seemed to mind that I slowed her up or made a mess. Also, to my amazement, she never used a recipe, she would just pour things into a bowl or pot and everything turned out great. Even my grandmother on my fathers side, who we called “Mother” was a great cook. When we would visit her in Mississippi, she was always up early cooking biscuits and gravy. I would always watch her roll out the dough and cut the biscuits and today I am glad that I took it all in or I would not have any recipes to go by.

I consider myself a good cook and have always encouraged my boys to help cook and do the dishes. They always seemed to like it and when they were little, they loved to help wash the dishes as well. Even though sometimes it was irritating to have to clean up the mess after we finished, I don’t think that they ever thought that I found it to be a chore. One tradition that I had with them was to bake and decorate sugar cookies at Christmastime. I would make the cookie dough from scratch one night and put it in the refrigerator. The next night the cookie cutters, colored icing, candies and sprinkles of every color would come out. We would cut out the cookies, bake them and decorate them as they cooled down. It was messy, fun and we certainly ate our share of warm cookies!

This year, I started that tradition with Rylee, my 2-year-old granddaughter. I picked her and her sister, Haylee, up from daycare and told them that we were going to Mimi’s to bake cookies. Rylee was so excited! Actually, my plan was to do this with both of the girls and then bake enough cookies to decorate with Mason at his house on Christmas Eve. Well, I soon found out that a 1 year old only wants to eat them. Everything goes into their mouths!

So, I put Haylee into the highchair and let her eat while her big sister and I did the decorating. I then decided that I would wait another year for Mason to try. Besides, he doesn’t even eat sweets anyway.

Being in the kitchen with Mimi is not strange for Rylee. From the time that she started walking, she has always helped me out. She pushes a stool up to the counter and climbs up. So, she loved the task of making cookies! The funny thing was that she had to have every part of the cookie covered with icing before you took it away or she would say “No, it’s missing” and grab it back so she could finish covering it.

Here are a few of our finished cookies………

And a video of our fun........................

Next year I will attempt it with all 3 of them. Now that is something to look forward to!