Can you have Christmas without Cookies?

Would it still be Christmas without cookies? Well, I guess the answer is yes. "Times they are a changin'!" With all of the healthy eating everyone is doing these days, we can't have too many Christmas cookies. Then there is our tradition of "family baking day." I guess it's time to let that go too. This year, I asked the girls what they wanted to do. They opted for just my chocolate chip cookies. I took it upon myself to add the pecan balls because they are Butch's favorite. Still, I'll miss my grandma's peanut butter oatmeal recipe, frosted sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, oatmeal scotchies and countless others.

I did all of my baking today. It was a rainy day---good for staying home. I made the spinach balls yesterday and rolled them at 5 a.m. this morning. And that's it. All the goodies for the holidays that I'm making this year are done.

I already put the chocolate chip cookies in the freezer---keeping two out for each of us. Guess who already ate theirs?

That reminds me of another Christmas without cookies.

I was about 7, Ronnie 6 and the twins 5. My mom was the most organized person you'd ever want to meet. With 7 kids, she had to be! Anyway, she always started baking her holiday cookies early and put them in the freezer.

It was 1959. We kids played in the basement. It was unfinished--just a concrete floor with open rafters for a ceiling---great for roller skating. The furnace was down there along with the washer and dryer. The big freezer was down there too. It was the chest type, but it was HUGE! Think of a refrigerator on it's side---but even a bit bigger than that. This particular year, we kids discovered the treasure trove of Christmas cookies in the freezer. There were tins and tins of them. It started so innocently---we had just a cookie each (that makes 4---Jeanne was too little. Matt and Joyce weren't even born yet). Then the next day we had 2 each and so on. We had chocolate chip, peanut butter, crescent moons, sugar cookies and those colorful press cookies with sprinkles and those little silver "bb's." We ate them all until the only cookies left were the Italian ones that we all hated. They weren't sweet at all. To this day, I do not like those dry Italian cookies.

Anyway, Christmas arrived. Mom went to retrieve the cookies she'd so painstakingly made since October. They were ALL GONE!!! OMGosh! We were in big trouble. My parents were the spanking type. Honestly, I can't really remember getting spanked for this. At least we were all in it together.

As you can see, we still had Christmas. Look how innocent we are! Believe me, looks are deceiving!

Notice the tape on Janice's shoes? That's how mom marked hers so she could tell her shoes apart from Jennifer's. To tell you the truth, I don't know why it mattered since they matched anyway.

I guess, Christmas will always come---with or without cookies.