An Old Cookie Cutter Finds a New Little Friend





(My granddaughter calls me Gra-Gra which appears in this Post). It was snowing in the kitchen today. Drifts were piling up all over the counter. The snow wasn't coming from a storm moving up the coast. The snow came out of a bag of flour every time a spoon was dug deeply into the white stuff and then sprinkled over the cookie dough and the rolling pin by a little Christmas cookie-making helper.The process of cutting the dough into shapes took a turn when she asked if I had a tree.
"What ...kind of a tree?"
"A tree to make cookie trees Gra-Gra."
The instant I understood what she was asking I thought of the old cookie cutter I'd left in the drawer. I didn't think she'd want to use it considering it wasn't shiny and new. It didn't look like the others. It was flatter and duller and had some scratches from being used over and over by other Christmas cookie-making helpers so many years ago.
"I do have one of those kinds of trees," I said.
"Where?"
I opened the drawer and told her, "In here."
Her eyes lit up. "Let's find it Gra-Gra."
I knew where it was. Whenever I went into that drawer I'd see it and remember the times when I was a little Christmas cookie-making helper back in a house that sat on a lane. That's the house where Santa would come when I was little. That's the house where I'd cut out cookies with my mother. I don't know how I ended up with that old cutter but I'm thankful I did. To anyone else it was a cookie cutter. To me it was magic. To me it held memories of times spent getting ready for Santa Claus with the scent of the Christmas tree in the front room covered in tinsel. My mother loved tinsel.
So we dug inside that drawer full of spices.
"Look. Here it is."
I pulled it out, thinking she wouldn't like it. But I was surprised.
"Oh Gra-Gra! What a pretty tree."
With that it snowed a little more and that old cookie cutter found itself the center of another little girl's attention. Right in the middle of a snowdrift that tree was planted. Then it was surrounded by sparkling red and green glitter. Lots of it. Piles of it. And then her imagination really kicked in.
"My tree needs a star, Gra-Gra."
I had to think. I knew I had a cake decoration left over from someone's birthday-and it was a star. Going back into that drawer-I found it!
"Oh Gra-Gra. Can you put that on my tree? And then we can pretend it is my birthday!"
Taking some cookie dough, we plopped a bunch of it on top of that old cookie cutter. Then we put that star in the dough and that's when she noticed the yellow star was a candle.
"Can you light my birthday candle on my Christmas tree, Gra-Gra?"
So I did. Then I sang Happy Birthday to that little Christmas cookie-making helper. It snowed some more after that. Christmas really is a magical season!

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