Baking on a Snow Day

Old habits die slowly. Soon after I got up yesterday morning, it began to snow. The forecast was possibly eight inches in our area, and the local schools were all closed. Having worked at a school the past thirteen years and only fairly recently having ended that association, the notion of a "snow day" was pretty solidly entrenched in my make-up. And I'm a Serious Wuss about driving in the snow. So I emailed the rector (surely among the most benevolent of men) and said I was going to take a vacation day and I'd see him when the roads were clear.

My church is having a cookie sale this Sunday to raise money for Stephen Ministry (a program close to my heart). I'd promised to contribute and had planned to do the baking on Friday. But there are few activities more wonderful for a snow day than baking. So I made a great big batch of criss-cross peanut butter cookies and bagged them up for the sale. Then, since I had the mixer and cookie sheets and everything out, I decided to  make a batch of oatmeal-raisin cookies for the family at Christmas time. When they were done, it wasn't lunchtime yet, so I made a big batch of Andrew's favorite chocolate chips. Then I had a little lunch and took a great big nap.

Perhaps you have noticed that the cookies in the sidewise photo above (????) don't match the description. That is because they aren't the cookies I made. It turns out that I wasn't the only baker yesterday. When I arrived at work this morning they were in the church kitchen. Gina, the little girl I've written about in the past, also had a snow day yesterday and she also knew exactly what to do with it. She baked. Three kinds of cookies. And brought them in to share. She's eight years old. And she's autistic. I am so impressed.