Making Memories

Today we finally made oatmeal cookies. I wanted to make them last week but didn't have a couple of necessary ingredients. Not having baking soda in the house made me think back to my own childhood. We always had that stuff in the house. My Mom baked a lot when we were young, and we never ran out of the staples of the kitchen. In fact my Mom made everything from scratch. Not only because she knew how, but because we were poor. There was no extra money for store bought goodies in our house.
Times are different now. I don't bake a lot. I really don't want cookies sitting around the house calling out my name. Generally I buy pre-packaged cookies for the girls in individual serving size bags. It works for us.
Today I baked cookies for a couple reasons. First, Tia loves to help in the kitchen and I want her to have the whole experience of making something from scratch, like I did with my Mom. The other reason is that I just want my kids to have that old-fashioned home made goodness. The feel of the oven warming up the house. The smell of something good wafting through the house. That's more than making cookies, that's making memories.
I know this because I remember watching in amazement as my Mom made cream puffs from scratch. My brother fondly remembers Mom's home made donuts. When they were little, my nephews loved making peanut butter cookies with their Dad. My oldest nephew looks forward to Grandma's pumpkin pie every Thanksgiving. Those are memories that last a lifetime. I want my kids to some day proclaim "I remember Mom always made the best_________, nobody can do it like her".
I told Tia that when the cookies were all done we would have them with a glass of milk. She said "And after we can read a nice story". I guess that means she enjoyed the whole experience too.
I'll try to do these things more often, especially when they get older so they will know the feeling of making something good in the kitchen with their Mom.


Here is a picture of Giuliana waiting for the cookies to come out of the oven. I couldn't help it, I had to take her picture. Seeing her stand there with tights on those chubby little legs just cracked me up.