Day 3: Tasty Times With Grandma

Looking back, today feels like a whirlwind.  The kids were home to have cookie baking party with Grandma.  M was a little sniffy, which actually slowed her down enough for some lovely extra snuggles.  B, as usual, chose Gingerbread cookies.  The recipe we use (found here) has several phases so we spread it out across the day.  In the morning, we made the dough and let it rest.  While the dough & M rested, B, Grandma & me played Board games, did crafts, read books, and started on lunch. After our homemade pizza, we rolled out the dough and popped it in the fridge until after work + nap.  Of course, M woke up when it was time for lunch so no real down time as one or the other is up all the time just now.  M and Grandma had some great playtime while B napped and I worked.  By the time Brent came home & Grandma ran her shopping errand it was already time for dinner and cookie baking.



(Note -- I want to remember all of the above, but may start my DD journaling here as I'm telling the cookie baking story today)

Gingerbread cookie dough is fabulous stuff.  You chill 1/4 inch slabs of rich, fragrant brown dough that lights your mouth with spices--cloves, ginger, & cinnamon melding together with molasses, butter, maple syrup, salt, baking soda and flour.  It is a blend of sweet and savory - sharp and subtle.  I'm surprised and pleased that such a young palate as B's is such a fan, but secretly suspect it may just be the shape and his current favorite bed time book --Gingerbread Friends.

I, not-so-secretly, am not a fan of making cut out cookies.  I know full well that my patience will not make it through the many steps all the way to frosting which is actually the fun part.  That said, I know it can be fabulous fun.  Consequently, each year I enlist my sister or mom to help so my children get to have this experience.  Even with help, we don't often get to frosting, at least on day one -- and that was the story today.  We took the sheets of dough carefully rolled out by Grandma's practiced hand and set B's little hands to work with our MANY cookie cutters.  We focused on holiday themes and he, of course, focused on gingerbread people.  Grandma is gentle, patient and encouraging, while Mom sometimes is not.

Grandma and B added cinnamon eyes and carefully made it halfway through the dough before dinner.  After dinner, it was time for reinforcements so I whipped through a few sheets of dough with Grandma & B keeping me company and Brent & M doing dishes behind us.  Everyone joined in for the last passes through the scraps which we turned into dozens of small cookies.  By the end, it was just me, surreptitiously shaking green sugar sprinkles everywhere before slipping the last try into the oven.  In the dark of evening, we weren't really hungry for cookies anymore and everyone was tired.  I'm not sure that everyone loved it as much as I had hoped, but I loved watching my Mom cook with my kids and feel so blessed that she is retired now and can spend lazy Fridays playing with us.  Thank you Grandma and thanks to my wildly different, but both completely wonderful kids.  Who knows, next year or maybe even tomorrow, we might actually frost some cookies!

(Note - No pictures for now due to technical issue.  I will add them here later or possibly along with the Day 4 post.   My laptop is being nuts, my iPad doesn't (yet) have an adapter to take SD cards, and the issues go on.  May have to ditch my laptop and by a Netbook --- or a keyboard and photodoc for my iPad....hmmm)