The Christmas package, from my sister Victoria, arrived today. We've been getting packages for the past couple weeks and the gifts have been very nice. And we sent out our share of packages. We've sent and received cards and still I didn't feel like Christmas. The spirit was missing. When Vic's package arrived we opened it and inside, with the gifts, was a tin of homemade cookies. We each ate one while opening the other gifts and later, while doing dishes, for the first time since the season began I found myself singing christmas carols and feeling maybe...just maybe...a bit like it really was christmas. I contemplated what made Vic's package bring the spirit of Christmas with it and then I realized what it was....
When we were kids my mom always baked a lot over the christmas holiday and stored the cookies, pies, etc in the 'cold room.' This was a room off the kitchen that for some reason didn't get heat, so in the winter it was like an ice box! Thus, we dubbed it the cold room. Of course, we always snuck in and stole cookies and those cold cookies were the best ever!
Even here in SC it gets cold this time of year, so when we opened the cookies and ate that first one they were cold. And that triggered that magical feeling of christmas that we got, long ago, as we 'stole' and ate those cold cookies over the christmas holiday.
Merry Christmas to all and may you all find that cold cookie that makes Christmas special for you.
1 comment:
What's really funny is that I had intended to write about the "cold room" too, and it's a holdover from the days when wood heated houses (or coal in our case) and refrigeration was done by blocks of ice. If you kept one room cold then you didn't need the blocks of ice in the winter.
And yes, baking the cookies makes me put on Bing Crosby and Johnny Mathis (but NOT Wayne Newton), so I fill the cookies with Christmas music passed down from mom too. <-;
Mom got her package today too and called.
Post a Comment