Thanksgiving, Birthday and Cookie Baking

     I've been so busy getting ready for Thanksgiving and Abby and Teddy's homecoming from Boston, that I haven't posted anything.  But I took some pictures:

     This visit was a Thanksgiving, 23rd birthday party and cookie baking combo.  My 86-year-old mom still made the turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy and stuffing as well as her own cranberry sauce cooked from scratch.  Did I mention the pumpkin pie too?  I brought Abby's favorite dessert, chocolate mocha cheesecake, and a new salad I stole from Jan Hall's recipe file.  It had carmelized almonds, greens and lots of other goodies.  The dressing base was lime juice, olive oil and honey.  Our group included Abby and me, my mom and her sister, my two sisters, brother-in-law and one of my nieces.  Oh, and all four of our dogs were in attendance.  One has socialization problems so doggie fisticuffs are always a strong possibility.  Luckily his kennel came with him so while his anxiety level may have been up (his anti-anxiety meds hadn't kicked in yet), ours was in check.
     The same crew minus two of the dogs, one aunt and one sister, showed up at my house the next day for our annual cookie baking session.  We always make sugar cutouts and Mom brings her molasses cookie dough, which we also cut out.  Since diets seem to have taken over our lives, the cookie numbers have declined.  This meant we were finished by 11:00 and had an early lunch.  Mom struggled with the two steps to my house, but she made it and we were all ecstatic that she came yet another year.

     We've been cookie baking together like this since Abby was a baby and I had to juggle cutting out cookies and nursing.  Then the girls grew into toddlerhood.  The sessions grew in length as more sprinkles ended up on the floor than on the cookies, and more guidance was needed.  Through the years boyfriends came too, and the sessions became quite short despite the huge number of cookies because we had so many capable hands.  This year there were no boyfriends and one niece was in Washington, so the group only numbered five.  But the memories are still endless.
     Yes, it's a lot of family and cooking crammed into two days, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.