For my family, the holidays are the most important time of the year. It's the time of the year that we all come together, put aside our differences, and just laugh. On our Christmas tree, we fill it with our prized memories, our Christmas cookies. Every year we have at least one Christmas cookie so perfectly imperfect on our tree our Christmas is complete. Those cookies hold the key to our past, present, and future Christmas memories. To most families, it may seem silly to care about these cookies so much, but to us, they mean the world. It's a way for us to connect even if that means you're not really talking. Sometimes we’ll invite outside friends to come and enjoy the festivities but typically we keep it between us. A new moment in time every year to savor, a new memory made. From the way I describe these cookies, most people would think they’re perfectly decorated, but the truth is they’re quite sloppy. Although isn’t that the beauty of life? Seeing the sloppy and still choosing to see the beauty in things, like our cookies. We choose to look past the sloppiness to admire the beauty of the memories because at the end of the day a cookie is just a cookie. As my mother would say “It’s not the sugar cookie, it’s the cookie, and it’s not the cookie it’s the act of”. To us it’s the act of Christmas cheer, it’s the act of giving back. And if that’s the one thing that these cookies have taught me, it’s the act of Christmas Cheer. 

– Madison Patch

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