I’m really looking forward to this evening. Tonight the family is getting together and decorating some tree-shaped sugar cookies we made last night. We had planned to decorate them last night, but I bought the supplies late and we had to wait and let the butter get to room temperature (very important) before we started. By the time the cookies were done baking, it was pushing 11pm and it was time for bed. So, we all agreed to convene again the next night and do the decorating.
I have to admit, it felt good to be doing something in the kitchen. I do enjoy cooking/baking, and I usually end up helping my mother with a lot of her Christmas baking when I come home for the holidays. Since I’m not going home this year, there’s been this longing to be in the kitchen doing something (anything really) since we arrived here in Alabama. Brad’s mom had pretty much wrapped up her Christmas baking already so there wasn’t really anything for me to do. So, while we were at Wal-mart the other day picking up baby wipes, I saw this Christmas tree cookie cutter and decorating accessories and got an idea … we’d have a cookie decorating party as a family!
Brad seemed to take to the idea too, so we picked up icing, frosting, and just about every kind of sprinkle you can imagine … you know the gays go big! So, Brad's mom and I mixed up the dough and cut and baked eighteen cookies. It felt good to be doing something along side of her in her own kitchen. We have decided to mix up green frosting and leave some white frosting so people can either have a green tree, an all white tree, or try the challenging snow-tipped green tree … using both the green and white frosting (that's what I'm doing!).
As much as I’m looking forward to it, I think the most important thing for me is it appears Brad’s family is looking forward to it as well. That just warms my heart. In the end, it doesn’t matter if the cookies turn out or if they are even pretty. What matters is that we will be doing something together as a family where each person will share a part of themselves … even if it is as simple as creativity with frosting.
They’ve all made me feel so welcome, but this is their Christmas and their traditions that I am now being immersed in. Who knows if this cookie decorating will go beyond this year … I never meant for it to become a tradition. But for now, I beam with happiness that they’ve already given me a gift this Christmas … as small as it may seem. They have given me the gift of experiencing something new this Christmas as a family, and I am a part of that new experience.
[As seen on Goodkin]
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