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Life is too short to eat bad food! Sharing great recipes, farm life, stories and photography from our Northern California dairy farm.

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December 19, 2011

On the 6th Day of Christmas ~ Family Traditions

Christmas is almost upon us.  My kids are excited....mostly for presents, but I know in 20 years what they are really going to remember is not the toy that was under the tree, but the family traditions that will be embedded in their memories for a lifetime. Creating memories for my kids to carry on, into the generations to come is what is most important to me.

This past Saturday, one of our family traditions took place here on the ranch at my in-law's house.  A day of Christmas cookie baking with four generations in the house, flour was flying on this day. 




















My mother-in-law, Annette, whipped out her recipe book that was given to her by her Grandmother, filled with recipes she's been collecting since 1967...



And then we all got busy....rolling, flouring, cutting, sprinkling, baking and decorating.....okay, I didn't really do a whole lot of rolling, cutting and baking, I mainly snapped the photos.
















The seven cousins, who behave more like siblings with one another, worked together to create some masterpiece batches of cookies.

















In the midst of baking, a slight set-back occurred....discovering the amount of flour to be included from a 1999 county fair recipe card my sister-in-law, Lesha was using and had already began mixing was missing, but quickly taken care of by calling our neighbor, Sue, from the farm down the road.  Sue is a baking GENIUS, she not only HAD the very same recipe, she called back within 5 minutes with the increment of flour to be used.....she saved us!
















Six hours later, our baking was finished, samples were tested and platters created.

















This morning, I couldn't resist and had an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie for breakfast.

Do you have a Christmas family tradition?


Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to leave a comment. I love to hear from you! Have a fantastic day!

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8 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

oh my gosh, this looks like a fun day for the kids (and lord help the adults!) ha!

Anonymous said...

Very neat way to spend quality time with family and build cousin relationships. It's also a great way to pass on treasured family recipes.

My only question is who does ALL those dishes? Do the kids help with that too? My Mom had a rule if Sister or I decided to cook or bake we did our own dishes. I remember her being very adamant on this rule too!

Robyn
http://theranchwifechronicles.com/

Pat Tillett said...

Hi Nancy! It looks like a lot of fun and one BIG mess! But the cookies look very good...

The Dairy Mom said...

I love it! My boys and I enjoy baking cookies too. I wish I had more family in the area to share the baking and memories with! Another holiday favorite is Swiss cheese fondue.

Leanne Collier said...

What a wonderful day to be baking with the kids , the boys and girls are so cute and growing , I am going to be a grandmother again in June just found out today I am thrilled ,,have a wonderful xmas love to you and your family , Leanne and Toby

cathy@home said...

I love tradions the new ones and the old.
Wishing you and your Family,
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
From Cathy

Lori Anne said...

The kids love making and decorating sugar cookies for Santa, and us. We also make other cookies that are given to family friends around town. We've also gotten into the habit of making "wreaths" from pretzels dipped in melted chocholate and then sprinkled with decorations.

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas! Lori Anne

Nancy Grossi ~ Churned In Cali ~ The Wife of a Dairyman said...

Robyn, I did manage to help with the dishes :) It wasn't too bad.

Thank you, all! Wishing you a very Merry Christmas as well :)