Cookie Monster

I have mentioned in several blog posts how much I love to bake. Every December, a week or so before Christmas, I do my extreme cookie baking. This year I made 764 cookies, which actually is a low total for me. Last year I reached over 1000. However, a sinus infection, coupled with a stomach virus toward the end of my antibiotic treatment, laid me low for a good portion of the month. Always the optimist, I remarked to my mom that in some ways, the stomach virus was probably a good thing since I did not gain overmuch from my cookie sampling. Still, I would have happily done without that diet plan.

 

The cookies are mainly gifts. Nothing makes people feel as loved as a bag of yummy treats. Needless to say, the family loves this yearly tradition, particularly the tasting component. I am used to John's and Alice's reactions to my Cookie Baking Extravaganza, but Angela's was novel. Last Christmas, she was eight months old. Solid food eating comprised of stage one foods and runny cereal. Cookies were not the ultimate food that they are now that she is 20 months. While too many cookies are not a good thing, I have to admire how Angela's love of cookies has really turned on the critical thinking part of her brain. Her quest of cookies has resulted in her learning that step stools are portable and not too heavy for her to carry. This knowledge has become very handy in cookie larceny. I cannot tell you how many times I have found her standing in front of the cookie stash with a bag in hand ready to flee. In essence, she has become Cookie Monster in human form.

 

This new status solidified itself on Christmas. My sister in law gave Angela a stuffed Cookie Monster as a gift. The stuffed Cookie Monster has a chocolate chip cookie in its hand. When presented with the gift, my hard core cookie crook tried to steal the fake cookie from Cookie Monster's hand.

 

If that is not hardcore, I don't know what is.