Cookie Day

Every year, on the Saturday before Christmas, I take on the role of sous chef and trot on down to my mom's house for her Annual Cookie Day. It's actually more of a Cookie Week, but as the sous chef, I'm called upon on the last day to help with the tasks Chef Mom doesn't like to do by herself - unwrapping Hershey Kisses, rolling balls of dough, decorating cookies, packaging, etc.

There's a certain order to the day - I arrive, wash my hands, and get my instructions from Chef Mom. Around lunchtime, my Dad and Kevin are allowed back into the kitchen for a few minutes to make their sandwiches, grab some chips, and get the heck out of Dodge. Chef Mom lets me have a few minutes to eat as well and then we nibble on some cookies while she figures out if she needs to adjust baking times, oven heat, etc. By the afternoon, we're ready to package everything up. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to pack all the cookies right so nothing gets crushed and everyone gets a nice sampler.

In recent years, I've enjoyed Cookie Day even more because it means a day of just chatting with my mom (no husband or active toddler in sight!) and usually my best friend Akiko (who unfortunately was not able to come out this year for the event). Sometimes my aunt and cousin from Sonoma come as well, so it's a nice Girl's Day all around. Good gossip and yummy cookies - what more could a girl asked for??

There's also usually the added benefit of getting one's car washed during Cookie Day. Usually my Dad gets bored and then can't stand seeing the dirty cars parked in the driveway, so out he goes with his bucket and sponge. Unfortunately this year, it was raining, but I did finagle getting my car interior vacuumed out. It's amazing how many Cheerios can hide in a car...

Here's some shots of the 2010 Cookie Day as chronicled by my brother Kevin (who we had to enlist to help unwrap candy...by his expression, you'd have thought we asked him to put on a pink apron too!) :)