Granny's Christmas

My Granny loved making Christmas special for her grandchildren.  Each year from the time we were tall enough to stand on a chair in the kitchen Granny would show me, and my little sister how to make sugar cookie dough from scratch.  Granny’s kitchen utensils were each a story in themselves and I will save that for another day.  I loved rolling out the dough on wax paper.  I thought wax paper was just the most amazing invention. Using just the right amount of flour so the dough would not stick to her special wooden rolling pin, the one with the spinning handles, the aluminum cookie cutters wrapped in Christmas red tissue paper, were taken from the place in the kitchen drawer where they hibernated all the other days of the year.    Let’s see, there was a Christmas tree, a reindeer in flight, a star, and a Santa Clause face.  My Granny was an accomplished colored icing maker.  She took those little bottles of food coloring and made a flesh tone for Santa’s face, different colored ornaments that stood out on the deep green of the Christmas trees and a nice brown fur color for the reindeer in flight with a bright red color spot for the nose.  The icing was of course made from scratch with powered sugar and always the perfect consistency. I have never in my adult life been able to stir up Granny’s home made icing and have it come out just like hers. My sister and I thought those were the best Christmas cookies in the wide world and Granny made us feel like she could not do it without us.  Adorning Granny & PawPaw’s house with treasured traditional decorations was just the greatest fun.  Our favorite was a golden colored bell with a string to pull for it to play a medley of Christmas carols.  Granny would have Paw Paw tie it to the chandelier that hung in the center of their living room.  We would take turns having PawPaw lift us up to pull the string.  My Mother still has this bell but the string has long since broken and so my kids do not get to hear the music but I still can.  kisses