The Cookie Tin

This tin means Christmas cookies to me.   If I remember correctly it was a gift from my Aunt to my mother sometime during my childhood.  Even when my mother lived alone later in her life and never baked cookies, it sat on her kitchen counter next to the stove. 

Now it spends most of the year on my pantry.  At Christmastime when I bake cookies, I bring it out and fill it up.  There is a certain ritual in the pulling of the pail off the shelf.  A moment when my heartbeat quickens with a mix of excitement and nostalgia.

One day this week when I was rolling warm cookies in confectioner's sugar by myself with our familiar shuffle of CD's playing, I found myself reflecting on how I could set a clock, a timeline of sorts, by the staple of recipes I make each year.  Olivia remembers many of them now, which means her cookie timeline has begun.

The Chocolate Crinkles you see here in the tin are a relative newcomer to the rotation, this being the third year we have made them. They are worthy of this tin or should I say the tin is deserving of them.  They are rather addictive, and I'm afraid that only a few of our friends and neighbors will experience them!  I use regular-sized chocolate chips instead of the mini, but either way, you will be transported to a snowy hillside.