One of our favorite Christmas traditions is decorating sugar cookies together. This special tradition is bound to become even better in the upcoming years because we will get to share it with our babies!
When Nick and I were dating, he always talked about his mom's delicious sugar cookies. He has fond memories of decorating cookies with his mom and brother every Christmas. I love the way he lights up when he recalls these sweet memories.
Each Christmas, he would ask me to bake sugar cookies. Without hesitation, I would find a recipe, bake the cookies, and we would decorate them together. Being the sweet man he is, Nick would kindly say, "They are good! But... they just aren't like the ones my mom used to make." This would make me wish I could just call his mom up and ask her what her secret ingredient was. For those of you who don't know, Nick's mom, Karen Joy, passed away from cancer when he was only 11 years old.
Fast forward a couple years:
We had been married for a mere six months and were getting ready to celebrate our first Christmas as married couple. We were at church one Sunday, and a woman named Kara came up to me and told me that she had known Nick's mom. She told me that she had been going through her Christmas recipes and came across Karen's sugar cookie recipe. She asked me if the recipe was something I would like to have, or if it would be too painful and would bring back too many memories for Nick. It was a total God moment!! I hugged her with tears in my eyes and said we would ABSOLUTELY love to have the recipe.
The following week I baked the cookies and we decorated them with cream cheese frosting... just like Nick's mom did. Nick said that they were exactly the way he remembered them.
These cookies are a blessing in our life because they allow the memory of Nick's mom to live on. Even though I never had the pleasure of meeting her, it helps me to feel connected to a special part of his family history. We've had a lot of people come up to us lately and tell us how thrilled Karen would be to learn that Nick is becoming a Daddy. From what people tell us, Nick's personality is very similar to his mom's. It is going to be a special time watching him become a parent and carry on special traditions... such as, Christmas cookie decorating, with our children.
Thank you Lord for allowing Karen's memories to live on in our home!
Nick created a "Ninja-Bread-Man" this year. It was epic!
P.S.- The secret ingredient was SOUR CREAM! It makes the cookies very fluffy and light!
