The best day, in my opinion, in December is the day after Christmas. This day is not necessarily always the 26th; the day I am referring to is the day after the busy schedule closes. Your last holiday meal has been had, and all of your goodbyes waved. The day when there is finally a quiet moment to reflect on all the joy the season brought.
This day is different from the day after Thanksgiving. Which is typically filled with chores and a sharp jolt back to reality. There is no uncomfortable feeling that you experience right when everything settles, and the chaos disappears. The momentary acknowledgment that you survived yet another family holiday, just to have everyone pick up and move on to the next big thing. In these instances, the intense schedule leading up to a celebration can bring more of a sense of dread and exhaustion than the joy of experiencing time with loved ones. At least, in my case, the day after Christmas holds no pressure to rush to the New Year.
The day after Christmas is magical in an entirely different way. It has a reflective quality about it. It is that moment that you decide, through all of the downs in the year, and all of the struggles of the season, that it was a Good Christmas. The tricky thing is deciding how to measure a Good Christmas. Was it the number of toys you were able to buy? Was it the amount of snow? The quality of the food you ate? Or just the pure appreciation of surviving another year?
This is a very serious contemplation, so naturally, it pairs well with watching the kids play with their new toys. Maybe you’ll find the energy to clean up the holiday mess, but mostly just a moment to exist. No extra strings attached. In my case, this is the one day to do whatever it is I feel like I missed during the rush of the holidays.
I already know what I am going to do this year! Since starting my family, I have felt the urge to include baking as a holiday necessity. It is not something I remember doing religiously growing up, nor is it something I am particularly skilled at. Even so, in my mind, it just happens to be the one thing I need to complete for the season to feel finalized. The act of baking successfully feels akin to a recovery, a final accomplishment to avoid dwelling on the year’s failures.
This year in particular has left me with quite a few failures and one good crop of citrus. So I plan on taking my so-called lemons (literally and figuratively) and baking some lemonade cookies. My entire family, all three of us, will take the time to ignore the disarray and bake these cookies together, no matter how long they take or how much of a mess is created. If we are feeling particularly triumphant, we just may bring some to share at The Garden Corner.My ultimate hope is that the simple act of baking together on the best day of the month will take all of the lemons out of the year and begin to create something quite wonderful. Upgrade our “Good Christmas” to a Merry Christmas and maybe even a Happy New Year.
If you would like to take my belated holiday cookie journey with me. I found this “20-minute” lemonade cookie recipe online from a baker named Lissa (Thank You, Lissa!) The reviews section recommends chilling the dough in the refrigerator for easier handling.
Lissa’s Lemonade Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 (15.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
- 2 large eggs
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- ⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar for decoration
Instructions
Gather the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in eggs, oil, and lemon extract until well blended. *You can use 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and some lemon zest instead of lemon extract.
- Working in batches, drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners’ sugar. Roll dough in sugar until lightly coated, then place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the bottoms are light brown, 6 to 9 minutes.
- Serve and upgrade your good to Merry!
