Miss Jill

Some things are tradition. In our family, every holiday has its own set of cookie cutters. My dad started it. He would haul them out at Christmas and make a quadruple batch so each one of us could have our own ball of dough to mangle.

My sister has carried on the tradition. Every major holiday from Dad's death until we moved up here to the frozen northland, she and the girls and I would mix up a batch, roll and cut them into cookies, and frost them within an inch of their lives. The cookies, not the kids. 

I miss my sister.

But God has a way of providing. He knew this tradition was important to me. He also knew that I would not continue it on my own, because half the fun was having a friend to do it with.

Aren't these beautiful? Miss Jill has been making them for years. When we lived next to her mom-in-law, she would bring us cookies on a plate every now and then. We thought they were beautiful. And yummy. And they never lasted very long at all. This year Miss Jill invited us over to her house one Tuesday morning, and we baked up a storm. Then we frosted those ten dozen cookies within an inch of their lives. Some of them were rather wonky.

Those cookies were beautiful in an eight and ten-year-old kind of way.They got tired of cookies so they went upstairs to play and dropped notes over the side of the loft for us.

Then, they would remember the reason we went to Miss Jill's house and climb back down for more frosting. Most of it did land on the cookies.

It was a wonderful morning full of our favorite things: birds, cookies, deer tracks, letters, cookies, music, a little cabin just the right size, and more cookies. Good conversation with a friend, and more cookies. I think perhaps Miss Jill is related to Mrs. West...I want to be like that when I grow up!

Our Family Sugar Cookie Recipe

1 1/4 c. soft butter
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
5 c. flour
1 t. salt
4 t. baking powder
1 t. nutmeg
1/2 c. milk

Preheat oven to 375F. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs. Mix dry ingredients and add alternately with milk. Use more flour if needed. Roll 1/4 inch thick. Cut cookies and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until puffy and just turning color on edges. Frost with your favorite frosting recipe. (We use Wilton's.)

Grocery list here.