I went to the store last week and bought the fixings for
making Christmas cookies. You know, sugar, chocolate chips, butter, coconut, nuts,
and such. I threw a couple of other little things I needed into the cart, too. The
total came to $56. When I got home, I realized that for $56, I could have
bought a LOT of cookies. And they’d all come out perfect and I wouldn’t be left
with an aching back.
So why do we women do this every year? Why do we feel it’s
necessary to spend money and time baking something that we get scads of from
other people? Right now, my house looks like cookie central. Don’t get me
wrong, they’ll all get eaten one way or another. Now is the time to indulge so
we can at least pretend we’ll keep our New Year’s Resolution of going on a
diet.
I could no more not bake cookies at Christmas than I
could not put up a small tree adorned with meaningful decorations
or not thrill over every Christmas card that arrives or not
listen to my favorite Christmas music, or not have twinkling lights
inside and outside the house. Baking is
part of the whole Christmas package. You leave out any one part and it diminishes
the rest.
So, I’ll continue to spend a wad of money and a lot of time and
an aching back on cookies I could much easier buy, because it is, after all,
Christmas. And we do have to have something to serve our guests who are already
trying to get rid of cookies like summer zucchini, don’t we?
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all my wonderful friends and family!
