I am not for certain just why but it seems right after Halloween arrives the rest of the calendar year flies right by and I mean it really passes fast. Right after Halloween it is only the blink of the eye and Thanksgiving with all the trimmings shows up and if we are fortunate we get to spend that day with family and take a moment to remember to appreciate all we do have.
But more than those two dates is the last month of the year. A person can move as slowly as possible and the time is going to fly bye and that is all there is to it. So much seems to happen in about a month of time. I know that whenever I think back to the years past my mind begins it recollections around the kitchen and my mom baking cookies and other assorted sweets. Mom believed that the season wasn’t complete without home baked Christmas cookies to go along with just about everything else that was cooked was for the season. At our home our kitchen turned into the Keebler cookie factory. To my mom she saw nothing wrong with just one more batch of cookies and they won’t hurt. This was said many; many times over as mom would bake until there wasn’t a square inch of space to place a cookie on in the kitchen.
More than just her family being able to glut on the sweet treats she made mom also had a bigger plan. With the cookies and I mean of just about every variety of cookie thought of mom would prepare empty tin cans and bake brown bread in them by the dozens. After she baked them she would wrap the cans in Christmas wrapping paper and also as many shoe boxes as there were cans. As mom mixed, stirred and baked she also would sing as this was something she would do with every chore she would carry out. Of course since this was in the Christmas window she sang Christmas songs. It is safe to say she was really enjoying what she was doing. “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly!” a sure fire hit song in her book. If so busy it was almost impossible to think and work there would be ‘Jingle Bells” as we all can hum that one and not really think too hard.
I know as she was emptying a tray from the oven onto a counter she said and “all had laid down for a long winter’s nap, with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.” For some reason I thought to myself now just what in the world is a sugarplum? Since a lot of sweets were made and consumed at our home how come I had never seen one of these sugarplums? I never did ask mom what it was as I figured out that if it was something good mom would eventually make it as she almost always did.
When mom got into this stage of confectionary baking it was safe to think we were going to get a large variety to enjoy. My mom as I think just about all the housewives of that time had what was called a cookie shooter. You would mix up your cookie dough and I think it was sugar cookie and load it into this device that as you pulled a trigger like device a plunger would push the dough out onto a baking pan and on the shooters tip a design was attached at the end so as the dough left the shooter it would form a design like say a Christmas tree or a wreath. This device was only used at our house this time of the year but it got used until she had baked a mountain of these cookies. Once baked she would then decorate the tops with a colored glitter like topping to give it a true Christmassy look. I guess mom thought the glitter made them look very good as she would smother the cookies with the stuff. (FYI; while the cookies are still warm it is wise to pour a glass of cold milk and dunk as many as you feel is needed.)
Although mom made a huge variety of baked goods she did use her secret ingredient (SUGAR) and they all tasted good she still could never top the Toll House Cookies she made year round as she never scrimped on the chocolate chips or the sugar and there was always a pan with some in it for company when they stopped by to go along with a cup of coffee that was over on the stove. She felt it wasn’t civilized to visit without a cookie and some coffee or if in the summer a glass of iced tea. (Extra sweet.)
When all she could bake had been baked and when she had gift wrapped all of the brown bread and the shoe boxes she had filled with a variety of her baked goods and some hard candy until the boxes were filled to the brim. By the way I learned that sugarplums are really hard candy. So even though I didn’t realize it at that time but she was putting them in the gifts she was making. You see each Christmas my mom would bake all this up and she and my dad would take a week end and visit people who were invalids or just to the age that they couldn’t get out of their homes much and they would bring them a box of cookies and a loaf of brown bread. It wasn’t a huge gift but as they both told me they felt it was more the fact that they remembered them and took the time to visit and give them something for Christmas. They said that shoe box might be the only gift they received but more than that they weren’t forgotten on Christmas.
It seems that things these days are different than when I was a boy and the world moves much faster and differently than it used to. Folks aren’t as shut in as they used to be and that is good and these days it would be much easier to go to a store and buy tins of cookies in bulk. In the days gone by cookies weren’t for sale in bulk yet. I know that when this time of year rolls around I always think back to a family that believed in giving and serves as the reminder that we still should give in some way and even though there really isn’t a set of rules to follow just be kind to your fellow man. Size isn’t the issue just remembering the other folks. But until then it might be best to have some cookies and milk while you think on it.
Rick Houser grew up on a farm near Moscow in Clermont County and loves to share stories about his youth and other topics. If you are interested in reading more of his stories they can be found in his books ‘There are Places to Remember” and’ Memories ARE from the Heart.” He may be reached at houser734@yahoo.com or mail to P.O. Box 213 Bethel, Ohio 45106.