…to make cookies memories.

It was 9:30 pm last Saturday night when Princess said “we should make chocolate chip cookies from scratch” and my first thought was, I’m so tired. But thankfully I didn’t let that ruin the opportunity to make a memory.

I don’t have alot of memories growing up of baking or spending time in the kitchen. There are a few from my grandparents house. My Grandpa Hank’s rice is still “famous” today and although he is gone my dad has taken over the tradition of making it for every holiday. But I do have so many other great memories.

It’s so interesting that the memories I do have don’t involve our home or a new car or things I was able to buy. All the memories involve time. Time spent with my mom or dad. Time spent with my brothers or sister. Time spent with my cousins or grandpa or grandma.

Our yearly ritual of farm chores: shearing the sheep, butchering chickens, giving the livestock shots. Things at the time that were considered “work” but now are cherished memories.

Our psycho rooster. And all the memories I have of us kids being chased by it.

The plays all of us cousins would put on. We would dress in our grandmas dress-up clothes and put on these major productions for our parents and grandma and grandpa.

The time our family went on our first major family vacation. All six of us. In a car. Three in the front and three in the back. We drove from SD to CA and then up the coast to OR and then home again. Except in CA the engine blew up. So there’s the six of us cramming into a tow truck. I do remember that tow truck driver was not a very nice person. He was obviously unable to see the fun in cramming seven people in the cab of a tow truck.

The other family vacation we took to FL. My sister had gotten married in FL and then my mom, dad, two brothers and me drove down to the FL Keys. Along the way we made fun of our mom as she read her “vacation” book that took us to The Bat Tower and other very weird, outdated landmarks.

Memory after memory, it’s the people and the time spent together that I remember.

And so although making cookies isn’t a major deal it was so much fun to just hang out together. Attempt to give Princess a few baking tips (not sure how helpful they’ll be!). Watch her and Belle together. And of course sneak a few tastes of the cookie dough.

I pray that when Princess and Belle are all grown up they’ll be able to look back and remember the times we made chocolate chip cookies on a late Saturday night. Or the nights we played board games until our sides ached from laughing. Or the snowball fights and wrestling matches with their daddy. Or our nightly family devotions.

And I pray that I’ll always remember to take the time to help create a memory.

Notice the flour that Princess put on Belle’s face. She was working hard!

Princess and Belle