The fact that it is socially acceptable to eat cookies for every meal during the Christmas season ignites the baker in me. This year I thought it would be a great idea to invite my Jewish boyfriend to experience some of my family holiday traditions, specifically, baking gingerbread cookies.
The night before Christmas Eve, we gathered all my cookie cutters, flour, rolling pins, and baking sheets in preparation for what I expected to be an easy gingerbread cookie baking session. Oh boy was I wrong.
Eminem vs Michael Bublé
When I asked my boyfriend to put on music to induce some Christmas vibes, he unexpectedly put on rap. Doesn’t everyone know who Michael Bublé is? I guess he wasn’t in the holiday baking mood as much as I was.
Rookie Mistakes
Not sure if this was just because my boyfriend is an amateur baker or because his family might not have similar holiday traditions, but he was surprisingly mind blown by the fact that I spread flour on the counter and the rolling pin so the gingerbread cookies would not stick. He also managed to take a bath in flour probably to show others he actually made Gingerbread cookies.
Christmas Must Bring New Shapes
I didn’t know it took someone who celebrated Christmas to be able to recognize the shape of the cookie cutters. There were numerous occasions when my boyfriend had mistaken the candy cane for the letter “J” and used the cookie cutters upside down. Now I know bakers must be rocket scientists.
Size Does Matter
Once the cookies were in the oven, my boyfriend was fascinated by how large they got. I guess the fact that gingerbread cookies grow as they bake was a foreign concept to him. On the other hand, I think he was happy that there would now be more cookie to eat once they were done baking.
As I pulled the tray of Gingerbread cookies out of the oven, my boyfriend was so amazed by their size that he couldn’t figure out how to decorate them. All he exclaimed was “WHOA they’re big. How do we decorate them?”
As funny as this baking session was, or as my boyfriend put it “a hell of an experience,” I’m happy that I got to share my traditions with someone that was willing to try new activities. Maybe next year he’ll be ready to move onto making a gingerbread house.