Saturday Kelli made plans to come and for us to have a baking day. Â She was feeling a little nostalgic. Â Kelli is my nostalgic girl. Â Over the last couple years she’s been on the hunt for the same tins Grandma Kramer made cookies in. Â She wanted to make cookies and put in them and give to her siblings. Â Grandma Kramer always, every year, made a bunch of Christmas cookies and filled an ice cream bucket of them and gave them to each of her kids. Â We all loved it.
Well Kelli’s goal was to tackle some of Grandma recipes and add in some of ours. Â The problem, snowy weather was predicted for Saturday late afternoon into Sunday so we decided to move things up just a bit and have Kelli come on Friday, stay over and get a jump start on Saturday morning…that’s what we did…only problem, Kelli had to work at the nursing home until 10pm and wouldn’t be to my house until 10:30.
After childcare and after supper on Friday night I started in on prepping things. Â I mixed up a double batch of roll out sugar cookies. Â I mixed up a batch of Yum-Yums and made them. Â Recipe here.
It’s a date mixture cookie that I love and the kids don’t really like. Â I mixed up the stuff for coconut balls too. Â Then I started unwrapping Rolo candies and put them out on the pretzels.
Kelli showed up and we started chatting and doing a few more things to prep for the next day. Â Finally at 12:30am I turned out my light and tried to go to sleep.
That’s when I remembered that Carver was coming in the morning and that I had told Kalissa that we’d be baking by 7:00am and that she could join us before she had to work. Â Oh no…this was going to be a short night so I was up and at ’em at 6:45am.
Kelli came down some time later and started in on the pretzel/Rolo treats. Â Recipe here.
Before long Kalissa came with Carver.
Then she was off to work and Kelli and I tackled Carver and cookies. Â He was so good…he always is. Â He loves just hanging out and doing whatever everyone else is doing. Â At one point Kelli went to change his diaper and called me over so I could see his onesie….Isn’t it so cute?
LOVE that shirt!!
Then we were back to baking….
We made a HUGE batch of star cookies.
About that time Craig called. Â He was off work and asked if I’d mind watching Carver a bit more as he had a couple things to do. Â Kelli and I didn’t mind but it was lunch time so we told him to come for lunch….it was breakfast for lunch as we had homemade biscuits and gravy along with eggs.
We cleared the table and were back to baking….Next up my turtles that I love…recipe here.
We did the coconut balls and a quadruple batch of peanut butter balls.
Last it was roll out cookie time.
We did two boxes like this. Â When we feed as many as we do, we don’t do fancy decorating of the cookies. Â Some frosting and sprinkles was as much as we could handle at this point…we were pooped.
The snow was coming down and the roads were getting bad so Kelli loaded up her cookies and goodies into the car and was off. Â I told her not to worry about the kitchen and that I’d clean it up….but I ended up sitting down at the computer for a minute…then thought the Christmas letter isn’t written yet so decided to start it.
Things flowed well and I didn’t need to take a long time writing but by the time I got up from the computer..Hubby had cleaned the kitchen. Â Oh my, I love that guy. Â It was the perfect thing he could have done for me!!
It was a fun day….I really loved it. Â But I did have to admit, I was pooped.
Are those date balls with little chunks of dates and Rice Krispies? Then you roll them in coconut, powdered sugar or chopped nuts?!?!?!
If so, can I PLEASE have the recipe? I tried to find Mom’s recipe for them when I was home but no luck…
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Sounds like a busy day and how nice you and Kelli could share it together.
My hubby always cleans the kitchen. His tolerance for mess is way lower than mine!
Sounds like a wonderful day! That’s the sort of day I miss now our kids are grown and moved away!
What kind of frosting do you use on the cookies that allows you to stack them? I don’t make sugar cookies often because I need to be able to stack cookies, and none of my frosting recipes make frosting that hardens enough to stack.
It is so fun to have traditions and that includes Christmas baking. Your YumYums I know as Fry Pan Cookies and they are a favorite of mine too. The Star cookies I know as Peanut Blossoms and sugar cookies are a classic. I so like all of the variations in recipes that can come from different areas.
Pat
In a bit chilly Minnesota (-10)
Sounds like a wonderful, but exhausting day.
Loved hearing about your baking day. I enjoyed your recipes, but in Texas we have different names for some of your recipes. Yum Yums are called Date Balls and Star Cookies are called Peanut Butter Blossoms.
Could we have your sugar cookie recipe? I lost my favorite one and haven’t found another I like as much. I keep looking! Thank you!
Loved reading about your cookie day adventure. I also miss cookie day. I have 3 daughters and we are not able to get together every year because of distance but when we do it is loads of fun. Printed off your recipe for Turtles. This is one of my hubby’s favorites and this sounds like an easy recipe to try. Thanks and Merry Christmas.
The date cookies are a recipe from my childhood. We called them Date Balls. My mom makes them better than I do. I have tried them several times, and the date mixture starts to harden up when I add the Rice Krispies. I can’t get them rolled into ball fast enough. Maybe I am cooking the date mixture too long? Any suggestions?
Enjoyed reading about baking day with your girls, Jo! I especially enjoyed reading the “happy ending” that hubby cleaned the kitchen!
Thank you for the recipes. The Yum Yum/Date Balls look wonderful!
Take care.
Oh my goodness…your post made me so nostalgic, too. I’m Pennsylvania Dutch and our tradition at Christmas was to make cookies, too. LOTS of cookies by the dozen. 30 years ago we moved to South Carolina and for about 5 years I baked all those cookies, made up trays, and gifted them to neighbors and friends. Well, I was accustomed to getting some in return, but that’s not the tradition here in POUND CAKE country. After reading your post, I realized that I didn’t miss eating all those cookies, I missed the fun of baking them all and the anticipation of sharing them.
Thank you for sharing your family traditions.
Deb