The Christmas Cookie Story

Beginning to decorate...

the chunky frosting

The (ugly) Christmas Cookies

Max and his gingerbread man

  Me and my (oval) tree...

Baking isn't in my future. Three nights ago, I was busy in the kitchen mixing together sugar cookie dough to take over and make with this little boy I hang out with once in awhile, not to be confused with babysitting...right Max? Anyways, I was all prepared; Cookie dough, cookie cutters, and decorations all set, and the butter, vanilla and powdered sugar were in a Tupperware ready to go.  All I had to do was mix together to make frosting. 

Now my sister Sarah used to hang out with Max last year, and cookie making was a highlight for him. In fact, he has brought up baking with Sarah in conversation on several occasions. I knew I had big shoes to fill. The pressure was real. Palpable. 

With the oven preheating, Max and I began cookie cutting. He decided he'd like to make the nativity scene out of gingerbread men, and I planned to make as many shapes as I could. I placed the sheet on the middle rack for 7 minutes, and I went to see how the handmade frosting was coming.

For some reason, I had only written down the ingredients for the frosting (which I already had pre measured anyways) and hadn't written down the recipe to actually make the frosting. Somewhere back in my long term memory, I had remembered my mom making frosting on the stove. So figuring this was the same kind, I basically boiled the frosting. It smelled good. As soon as I removed the pot from the stove, the frosting cooled and became a gelatin mold.

 Thinking I had still made it correctly, panic didn't set in until I removed the cookies from the pan. To say they were puffy and shapeless is an understatement. The stars looked like circles, the trees like ovals, and the gingerbread men? well, they made it out looking like Michelin tire men. 

Max and I decided we'd continue to decorate regardless of the disaster at hand. I started to spread the boiling hot and chunky frosting on the cookies but it cooled before we could pour the sprinkles. 

We decided to bag the frosting and draw with the skinny tubed frosting instead. The cookie making was basically a disaster. Max and I had a good laugh, and although my baking pride and aspirations were seriously shot down a few notches, I realized an important lesson; When life gives you puffy cookies and chunky frosting...don't become a baker.