Twas the Night Before Cookies

Twas the night before Cookies, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Actually we were gathered at the Gormley's having Birthday Cake

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

Um, no.
The children were gathered round the table with cake
And we wondered if in the morning they would wake.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.

Wrong again.
Unless Shady Maple has sugar plums.
They have everything else so I wouldn't be surprised.

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

Yeah, no again.. the naps came later. I think you better let me tell the story.

When 6:00 came there arose such a clatter
As people of all sizes began their morning chatter.

Away to the driveway we went out in a line (not exactly but it rhymes with time)
Piled into the vans so we could leave on time.

The moon was up high and the sun was still low
And the ladders were so neatly lined up in a row

When what to our sensitive noses should come
But a smell so rotten we wanted to run

As we turned the next corner we perked up a bit
There was Shady Maple; We were ready for it

More food than ever; From eggs to ice cream
And pancakes, and Icees, it was just like a dream.

Now Thomas and  Robbie, you have the wrong drinks
It was harder on Thomas than Robbie, I think

By the house that was gone, to the house that was new
We made out way home in our cars numbering two.

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky
We began the baking of not just a few
No cookies in dozens we'd bake 52.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok That's about as far as I can go. I can hear the groans at the silly rhyming already. Needless to say it was another successful family cookie bake. I think the Shady Maple breakfast is just as big (if not bigger) draw than the actual cookie baking.

I've noticed that we are getting smarter with the baking. We used to start everything at once and ended up with a huge backlog waiting to get into the oven. We managed to stagger things better this year and except for a very noticeable lack of attention to the beeping timers (they beeped far too long) I think everything went smoothly.

This year we made 52 dozen cookies all dutifully catalogued in Uncle Thomas' "Sirphone". Just like a GPS, though, I noticed she can be very tempermental and a bit insistent that you do things her way. We made a few variations in our recipes this year and all were a big hit; for cut out cookies we had a gingerbread dough,  Aunt Meg used dried cranberries instead of raisins in the Fudgy Fruitcake cookies and at Uncle Thomas' suggestion we made a batch of rolo cookies with vanilla dough instead of chocolate. All were met with good reviews. I tried chocolate chip cookie dough truffles this year and I think I've found my cookie (finally). Lisa made lemon square that were aweomse (I think this may become her cookie contribution).

I love this family gathering (almost as much as Thanksgiving).

This post marks the anniversary of the Blogger Challenge. It was last year at the cookie bake that Amy, Carolyn and I decided to each blog about the event without looking at what the other's wrote until finishing our own entry. It is a challenge that has been maintained for every family gathering since. I enjoy it and I hope they (and our readers) do too.

Here is a link to my photos on Facebook.