Post by Cami O'Connell on Dec 11, 2014 9:04:07 GMT -6
Cami danced around on her toes while she lifted the whistling tea pot from the burner and Elvis Presley begged Santa to bring his baby back to him. The as soon as the hot water hit her mug, nutmeg and cinnamon from her Russian Tea filled the air around her. Funny how smells trigger memories; the spice mixture triggered Christmases past, of her and Sean sitting around their Grandma's laminate table in cherry red vinyl chairs. Every inch of flat surface in her kitchen was filled with cookies and baked goods.
As Cami carefully unwrapped the first ornament, a weathered antique, off-white wooden angel, she recalled the pecan shortbread cookies- her favorites. How it was her job to roll the still warm cookies in the powdered sugar and though the temptation was strong, she would not sneak a single cookie. Because she knew that once they were finished baking and packing up care-packages for the ill and elderly at St. Mary's, it would be time to decorate the tree, light a fire, eat cookies and fall asleep on the rug in front of the fireplace. She smiled through a tear and set the ornament down to unwrap another.
Bing Cosby and Mahalia Jackson assisted Cami in stringing the clear lights on her small tree in front of her windows. Nat King Cole and Burl Ives helped her with hang the ornaments in varying hues of white and Dean Martin and Johnny Mathis caroled her while she set up her Gramma's nativity set on the mantel. Each precious decoration she pulled from the boxes held priceless memories of a family which she was the last of now.
With all the drama surrounding her lately, she felt the best thing was to throw herself into the human holiday head on. She opened her pantry and came back out with an arm full of baking supplies. She hung the first recipe, written on a yellowed index card written in her Gramma's scrolling penmanship and measured out the flour for her first batch of pecan shortbread cookies. She blissfully lost herself in the process, baking dozens of several different kinds of cookies. Ella Fitzgerald and Perry Como kept her company as she made gift baskets for the friends she considered her family now. And Michael Buble serenaded her while she tied the clear cellophane with gold ribbons and scrawled her name on cards before shrugging into her coat to deliver them. With baskets draped on her arms, she stepped out of her apartment and into the warmth of Louisiana, so much different than her childhood winters up north where they tracked through snow while stuffed in snowsuits. She hummed "White Christmas" and she set off in the direction of her first delivery.
As Cami carefully unwrapped the first ornament, a weathered antique, off-white wooden angel, she recalled the pecan shortbread cookies- her favorites. How it was her job to roll the still warm cookies in the powdered sugar and though the temptation was strong, she would not sneak a single cookie. Because she knew that once they were finished baking and packing up care-packages for the ill and elderly at St. Mary's, it would be time to decorate the tree, light a fire, eat cookies and fall asleep on the rug in front of the fireplace. She smiled through a tear and set the ornament down to unwrap another.
Bing Cosby and Mahalia Jackson assisted Cami in stringing the clear lights on her small tree in front of her windows. Nat King Cole and Burl Ives helped her with hang the ornaments in varying hues of white and Dean Martin and Johnny Mathis caroled her while she set up her Gramma's nativity set on the mantel. Each precious decoration she pulled from the boxes held priceless memories of a family which she was the last of now.
With all the drama surrounding her lately, she felt the best thing was to throw herself into the human holiday head on. She opened her pantry and came back out with an arm full of baking supplies. She hung the first recipe, written on a yellowed index card written in her Gramma's scrolling penmanship and measured out the flour for her first batch of pecan shortbread cookies. She blissfully lost herself in the process, baking dozens of several different kinds of cookies. Ella Fitzgerald and Perry Como kept her company as she made gift baskets for the friends she considered her family now. And Michael Buble serenaded her while she tied the clear cellophane with gold ribbons and scrawled her name on cards before shrugging into her coat to deliver them. With baskets draped on her arms, she stepped out of her apartment and into the warmth of Louisiana, so much different than her childhood winters up north where they tracked through snow while stuffed in snowsuits. She hummed "White Christmas" and she set off in the direction of her first delivery.