Cookie disaster makes crummy Christmas memory

Virginia Linn / Dec. 5, 2008

    About six Christmases ago I decided to make a Christmas memory with my kids. I had set aside a whole Saturday to bake cookies, partly inspired by a mouth-watering cookie on the cover of that December's Gourmet Magazine. It was a big cut-out star with those silver candy balls on each tip. I couldn't wait to eat the finished product.

    We mixed up the ingredients. We rolled out the dough. We decorated and we baked. We had Christmas carols playing in the background. We didn't care how messy the kitchen got.  I thought "Wow!" they're going to remember this day."

    Then we took the first batch out of the oven. The pretty stars had fallen apart. Even though we had followed the directions to the letter, the cookies tasted like sand. In one word: awful.

     Undaunted, I said, "Let's try mixing them up again." So we threw in the ingredients. We rolled out the dough. We decorated and we baked. Again -- awful.

     At this point I was throwing things and shouting things. The kids scattered and the cookies landed in the trash. I was so frustrated. What could I have done wrong? My kids ended up with memories of a bad, bad day.

    We went on to try other old standby recipes with better results on a later day, but I was still haunted by the first disaster.

     In late December, the January edition of Gourmet magazine arrived in the mail. In the front of the magazine was an editor's note. CORRECTION: Last month's star Christmas cookie recipe omitted an ingredient that was blah blah blah. .....We apologize for the error.

     There! I was vindicated! I wasn't to blame for the disaster! But still, I couldn't take back the memory.

     I talked about that disaster the other day with my kids as we planned what we'd bake together this year for Christmas. And interestingly, despite my angst, only the oldest (almost 18) had a faint memory of the day and the two younger ones didn't remember anything about it.

     But of course I remembered everything. I got my revenge, however. I canceled my subscription.

Read the complete post at http://pittsburghmom.com/blogs/teenangst/archive/2008/12/05/cookie-disaster-makes-crummy-christmas-memory.aspx