At the end of November, the wonderful holiday aroma of baking sugar fills the air. Every year at Christmastime my mom, sister and I bake our family sugar cookie recipe in the shape of gingerbread men to eat as an advent calendar; one every day til Christmas. We bake them until they’re golden brown (though my mom and sister like them burned), and then we tie them with ribbons onto a chain. The tradition was started when my mom’s grandma made the chains out of felt and ribbons for her four grandchildren: my mom and her sisters. She passed in 1991 so we never met, but my Grandma made a chain for me, my sister, and my dad. My mom said that when she was a kid, “We had to hang them inside a cabinet in the living room because our dog would eat them.” Christmas is one of my absolute favorite times of year. We have so many special traditions as a family, like advent calendars, family dinners and cooking together, and these cookies are one of those special things. At the end of the chain there’s a poem written by my great-grandma with a bell. It’s so exciting when you reach the end of the chain on December 24th and eat the last stale, soft cookie. When you reach the butter-soaked poem and ring the bell, you know it’s Christmastime.

– ME

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more