Merry Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has always been my favorite holiday. I associate it with my childhood in northeastern Oklahoma where we attended church service on Christmas Eve at our little white-steepled Methodist church. After singing Christmas carols, all the kids received a red net stocking filled with an apple, an orange, and ribbon candy, passed out by "Santa", the father of one of my friends. After church we would go home and get warm with hot cocoa that Mom made in a pot on the stove with cocoa and milk and sugar. I was always so excited and happy when I went to bed, anticipating the gifts that would be under the tree when I got up. After I got married and had a family, watching Holiday Inn and making and decorating my Granny's sugar cookies became some of the traditions my kids enjoyed, but I still feel the anticipation and warmth of those childhood Christmas Eves.

Here is Granny's sugar cookie recipe that my adult kids and husband expect me to make every year. According to my Mom, Granny made these all her life, so the recipe is at least 125 years old. Be forewarned, it is a tender dough that is not easy to cut and roll out, but the cookies are so, so good!

Granny Mitchell’s Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies

1 cup shortening
1 stick salted butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
4 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon soda
5 to 5-1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons nutmeg

Cream shortening and butter; add sugar and mix. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Mix soda into buttermilk (in a container that will hold the overflow when it bubbles!) Whisk together 5 cups flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg; add alternately with buttermilk. Add more flour as needed to make a dough that holds together. Chill dough at least two hours or overnight. Roll out on floured surface and cut into shapes; sprinkle with sugar. Bake 375 about 10 minutes. Dough freezes well. These are excellent with a powdered sugar icing.

May your Christmas be filled with magical memories!