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December 22, 2019 3 min read 6 Comments
While the celebration of Christmas among the McMullen family has evolved and adapted over the years with the addition of spouses and grandchildren and adjusting to different schedules, there is one memory that stands out from their childhood: making sugar cookies with Big Nana.
“Every year, we would make dozens and dozens of sugar cookies,” Cheryl said. “I mean, I don’t even know how many we made, but it was a lot.”
“We would go visit my mother’s mother, who we called Big Nana,” Hedy recalled. “They lived on a farm, and they butchered their own beef and chickens and the whole nine yards; they really only went to town for flour and sugar that was it. We would be so excited to go there for the holidays, because you know, we were ‘city girls’ by that point.”
Well, once a year, it seems Big Nana went to town for more than just flour and sugar, and she went ALL OUT.
“She had every single color of icing you could imagine -- pink and green and blue and red and every other color there was,” Hedy said. “And she would have these little bowls full of all sorts of decorations for us to use. Sprinkles, and silver balls, and little Red Hots to use as buttons -- every sort of confection you could ever want to put on a cookie. And that was a big deal, not only because they went into town for it, but they were spending money when there wasn’t much money to spend.”
So, armed with their wide array of adornments and a collection of cookie cutters in the shape of Christmas trees and Santas and snowmen and the like, the sisters, Nana, and Big Nana would spend all day baking and decorating.
“Audrey was still a little too little to really get into it; she’d get up there and make a few, but we never could hold her attention for very long,” Hedy said. “And then Cheryl’s, my god, can you even imagine what hers came out looking like?! And then, there I was, I had icing all in my hair, it was all up and down both arms, just a mess.”
“Oh, you know me, of course I was crazy about decorating them just right,” Cheryl said. “I had to make sure every silver ball was lined up perfectly on the Christmas trees, and just took every detail to heart.”
“It was almost half exciting, half embarrassing when they displayed them to the rest of the family,” Hedy laughed. “Like, ‘Look at the cookies I made!’, but also ‘Oh. Look at the cookies I made.’ But they all tasted the same anyhow.”
Can’t you just picture how adorable (and chaotic) that scene must’ve been? So, when you’re stressing over the minutiae of making the holidays “perfect”, just remember it’s the messy memories that mean the most.
Cookies
½ c Softened Butter
1 ½ c Sugar
2 Eggs
1t Vanilla
3 ¾c Flour
1t Baking Powder
½ t Baking Soda
½c Sour Cream
½ t Salt
Mix together. Chill for 2 hours. Roll out til ¼ - ½ “ thick. Cut cookies.
Place on silicone sheet on the cookie sheet and place cut cookies on the silicone sheet
Bake at 425ºF 4-6 minutes. (Don’t over bake). Cool
Buttercream Frosting
1/2c Softened butter
1 lb Powder Sugar
2t Vanilla
4T Milk
¼t Salt
Mix and Frost Cookies
Cheryl’s late Saturday night notes:
For this article, Mom called Aunt Sue to get Big Nana’s recipe since Aunt Sue is the “keeper” of the family recipes. However, something didn’t look right to me...for starters Big Nana would have never cooked cookies or anything for that matter on “silicone.” Also, I remember fresh cow’s cream going into the icing. Dubious, I had to test the recipe to see if in fact if it was the one Big Nana used all those years. The results:
December 22, 2019
Great pick of Big Nana and 8 kiddos what a sweet memory I could visualize the icing in the hair thx for sharing and I won’t sweat the small stuff so bad Merry Christmas to all🙏🏻🎄😘
December 22, 2019
Great pick of Big Nana and 8 kiddos what a sweet memory I could visualize the icing in the hair thx for sharing and I won’t sweat the small stuff so bad Merry Christmas to all🙏🏻🎄😘
December 22, 2019
Gifts come and go, get lost along the way, but memories last a lifetime. When kids grow up, they begin to realize that the very best gift of their childhood was a loved one’s time…simply priceless.
December 22, 2019
I’m just gonna be me… I wanna see the x rated ones! Bahahaha ❤️🐺
December 22, 2019
That UT vs TCU cookie is definitely X-Rated. Behave yourself!!!
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Lisa Henderson
December 23, 2019
These look like such great memories. I think I’ll start a tradition with my grand children. As we get older we realize how special these times will be.