(Editor’s note: As part of our Community Contributors series, we will be publishing poetry. In the past, newspapers routinely published poetry from local authors. We at the Ohio County Monitor wanted to try to reach back into the past and bring the custom back to the present. Below you will find to Christmas poems. We hope you enjoy them.)
Christmas Cookies
My sweetest Christmas memories, as a child, are of making cookies and candy with my mom and sisters.
Flour laced table and countertops, sugar crunching under your bare feet, while the sweet scent of cinnamon and warm goodness float through the air.
Holiday music fills the house, shouts from out of tune kids belting along. Giggles and dancing. Merriment wrapped in a magic moment.
A tradition began out of necessity. Never knowing momma, having a surplus of baking supplies but not much else was trying to give us a gift in the only way she knew how.
I don’t recall much of what was under our tree growing up but I do remember those holidays spent together in the kitchen.
A treasured memory carried on with my own family as I left home.
Little boys barely old enough to stand in a chair and reach the countertop, tiptoe to help stir, mix and bake.
Parchment lines every inch of space available awaiting hot from the oven delights. Red and green canisters empty and ready for stacking when the cookies cool. Chubby hands clumsily grab spoons, eager to lick extra batter.
Teachable moments of sharing and taking turns, patience, and kindness. Through the years, teachers, bus drivers, neighbors, and soldiers were gifted the sugary treats.
Now, my youngest, a father to be, has mastered my chocolate chip recipe better than me. And I eagerly await the opportunity to watch the two of them cooking alongside each other, someday.
A growing generation, baking cookies for Christmas, receiving blessings by the dozen.
Heather Blair is a Kentucky girl at heart, growing up in a small town she’ll never leave and has a love for backroads and bluegrass landscapes. She finds joy in the little things, like butterflies and farmers markets, friends and family gathered at the table and catching more fish than her hubby. Her best-selling novel is currently in her head but, in the meantime, she has been published online for over a decade.
