Every December, Mary would spend a full day making cookies. She saved takeout containers througout the year and filled them with her goodies to share with friends, family, and neighbors.
I’ve never baked and I didn’t intend on picking up this tradition. My sons loved helping their mom, but I didn’t know where to begin (I was/am lead dishwasher).
When I tossed the idea out to friends that my sons enjoyed baking, but I was inept, there was no hesitation in someone suggesting a cookie baking party. It came together in five days with two of my late wife’s recipes on the menu.
The music was wild and the grownups kept things rolling as the kids rotated in and out, eating and helping in turns.
We’ve cultivated this new group of friends out of a primal drive for community. My boys have videogame, wrestling, and troublemaking partners and I have found a group of unschoolers who value the strength we find in each other.
It was a thrill to revisit Mary’s tradition in a totally new way. I know she’s smiling on us today.