Christmas Cookies

By:  Lynne G.

 

It was the week before Christmas on the Ponderosa. The weather had been bitter cold and a deep snowfall covered everything in sight making it look like a winter wonderland.

Now with so much snow on the ground, the only way to get around was by horse and sleigh. There were plently of thick warm wool blankets on the sleigh to keep the Cartwright family nice and warm when they needed to travel to Virginia City to do business or shop.

There was a lot of excitement in the air with Christmas being so close, especially for five year old Little Joe.

Little Joe was the youngest of Ben Cartwright's three sons, and this very active little boy thought about nothing else except Christmas and Santa coming to see him.

Ben, Adam, Hoss, and Hop Sing, the family's cook, housekeeper and the ' real ' boss of the house, made sure that they kept the excited little boy busy most of the time to help keep him settled down. At times that was a hard thing to do, especially with Christams so close.

The hardest part for Little Joe was trying to keep out of mischief, which just seemed to follow him where ever he went. To his family, Little Joe lived for mischief, and that kept everyone on their toes never knowing what the little imp would do next.

Hop Sing had been busy for weeks baking up all kinds of holiday goodies for ' his ' family, and he tried to include Little Joe with the baking.

Hop Sing was known as the best cook and baker in the area and that made Hop Sing feel very proud, and he loved it when family friends would come to the ranch for dinners.

" Little Joe, today we make sugar cookies. Hop Sing have new cookie cutters that come in many different shapes, that Hop Sing get from Hop Ling. It be fun to make cookies in different shapes," Hop Sing told the little boy.

With a gasp of excitement, Little Joe looked up at Hop Sing with his huge sparkling green eyes and his mouth open.

" What kinda shapes does we gotts Hop Sing ?" the child asked with excitement in his voice.

" Hop Sing have trees, santas, stars, candy canes, angels, and a horse," Hop Sing replied. Little Joe just stood there with his mouth open. He had never seen cookies that came in different shapes, and he couldn't wait to get started making and decorating the cookies.

" Can I help ya cut em out Hop Sing ? Please, please ? I won't make no mess fer a ta cleanup either. Please Hop Sing please ?" the child begged.

Hop Sing looked down at Little Joe and he had to smile at the look on the boy's face. " Yes, Little Joe help Hop Sing cut out cookies. Then when all cookies cut out of dough, then we bake them. When they come out of oven and cool down, then we decorate them," Hop Sing began to explain.

" Then Hop Sing make lot of frosting in different colors to put on cookies. Hop Sing also have peppermint stick to crush up to put on candy cane cookies," Hop Sing finished explaining.

Little Joe was so excited that he jumped up and down as he giggled.

Hop Sing put on apron on the little boy then had him kneel down on a chair so he could easily reach the top of the work table in the kitchen.

Hop Sing had made up a lot of cookie dough for the cut outs, that it would take three days to make all the cookies. He had made several piles of dough as it would be much easier to roll out the smaller amounts of dough rather than large piles of dough.

" Hop Sing show Little Joe how to make cookie cut outs. You hold cookie cutter in hand nice and tight. Then you dip the cutter in on the plate that have flour in it. That keep cookies from sticking to cookie cutter."

" Then when have flour on cutter put cutter on rolled out dough next to edge of dough and gently press cutter down onto dough," Hop Sing explained. The child nodded.

Hop Sing did one to show Little Joe exactly the correct way of doing the cookie cutter and then how to barely jiggle the cutter to loosen the dough from the cutter.

Little Joe was very impressed at the cookie shape that Hop Sing had just done. He couldn't wait to try his hand at cutting cookies out of the dough.

Hop Sing showed him where to put each shape of cutter so they could the most cookies out of each rolled dough ball.

Each time Little Joe made a cookie he used a different shaped cutter. " Look Hop Sing, I dun maded a horsey and a tree !" the child shouted with excitement. " You sure did, " Hop Sing replied as he was thoroughly enjoying watching the little boy working so carefully making each cookie shape.

When the rolled dough was fiull of cookie shapes, Hop Sing carefully lifted each cookie up and he placed them on the cookie sheet, then put the sheet in the oven.

Then he would gather up the leftover dough and add that to the next pile of dough that he would roll out flat next.

Every now and then Little Joe would pick up a small piece of cookie dough and eat it. That was as much fun as making cookie to him. Of course Hop Sing let him eat small pieces of dough since he did that too.

" This is so much fun Hop Sing ! I ain't never seen cookies in shapes before. We sure dun maded lots and lots of cookies taday dunt we ?" the child said. " Yes we did, and tomorrow and the day after that we make even more cookies. Family needs lots of cookies to eat over the holidays," Hop Sing told the little boy.

" When Little Joe wake up from nap, then we can decorate all cookies we make today. Hop Sing make lot of frosting for cookies, and have colored sugars to sprinkle on top of frosting too. That make cookies look pretty," Hop Sing added.

Little Joe was really looking forward to decorating the cookies and he wished that he didn't have to have a nap, but he was sleepy and as soon as his head hit the pillow he fell right to sleep.

Hop Sing looked down at the sleeping child, and softly said, " Little Joe very tired. He work hard at making cookies. Much excitement for little boy, now he sleep." Hop Sing gave the child a kiss on his forehead then he left the child's bedroom.

True to his word, as soon as Little Joe woke up from his nap, he and Hop Sing began to decorate the cookies.

" WOW, look at all them pretty colors of frosting. There's green, red, pink, chocolate, white and yellow," the child squealed.

Hop Sing had made extra frosting because he knew that a certain little boy would be tasting the frosting as he decorated the cookies.

Hop Sing helped Little Joe decorate the cookies. For the tree shaped cookie, they put green frosting on the trees and add a little white also to make it look like snow. Once all the tree cookies were frosted, they sprinkled some of the colored sugar over the trees to make them look like they had decorations on them.

The horse shaped cookies had chocolate frosting on them and of course Little Joe put a little bit of white frosting on them to them look like pinto's. Since there wasn't any black frosting, most of the horses were brown and white.

The santa shaped cookies were red with white frosting being santa's beard. The angel cookies were pink and some were yellow, and the star shaped cookies were white and some were yellow. The candy cane cookies had stripes of red and white on them then they were sprinkled with the crushed peppermint candies.

Little Joe was having a great time decorating the cookies and he had different colors of frosting all over his little beaming face.

" Ain't all them cookies pretty Hop Sing? Fank ya fer lettin' me help ya make em and decorate em too !" The little boy gave Hop Sing a big hug, and he added, " I love ya Hop Sing."

" Cookies look very nice. Little Joe do a very good job of making and decorating each cookie. Hop Sing love to have little boy help in kitchen. Hop Sing love Little Joe very much. He feel like Hop Sing's son," Hop Sing told Little Joe as he returned the big hug back.

Suddenly Little Joe got a very serious look on his face and he looked up at Hop Sing and said, " We gotts ta hide them cookies from Hoss so he won't eat em all up before Christmas !"

" Little Joe not worry, Hop Sing will put most cookies away so they last through the holidays, but will have lots of cookies out so family can eat them anytime, and we will make more cookies tomorrow and the day after that too," Hop Sing told the worried youngster.

Little Joe was very relieved to know that they could have cookies anytime and that they would have lots and lots of cookies to last for weeks.

Hop Sing told Little Joe that he could have a cookie now, and then when the rest of the family returned from Virginia City then they could all have cookies and some hot chocolate. That made Little Joe very excited as he ate a tree shaped cookie.

" This cookie is so yummy Hop Sing. Just fink, I just ated a tree !" the child teased as he started to giggle. " Yes, you ate a tree," Hop Sing replied as he had to laugh at the little boy who had some green frosting on his nose.

As soon as Ben, Adam and Hoss walked into the warm and cozy ranch house, they were met by a very excited little boy who jumped into Ben's waiting arms.

" Papa, I dun ated a tree taday and it was so yummy !" the child squealed. His confused family just looked at each other.

" You ate a tree ? Ben asked, teasing like he was surprised as he knew that Hop Sing had a tree shaped cookie cutter.

" Yup, I's sure dun did ! You can eats a tree too if'n ya wants one," the child told his family. Adam and Hoss winked at each other as Adam said, " I can't believe our baby brother actually ate a tree." " Yeah, me neither. I ain't never ate a tree in my life !" Hoss declared as he tried not to laugh.

" Ya guys can eats a trees, candy canes, stars, angels, santas, but not the real santa. Just the cookie santas, and ya can eats a horsey too !" the child added as he giggled.

About that time, Hop Sing walked into the room with a large tray that held four mugs of hot chocolate and a plate filled with cookies.

" Will ya look at all them fancy cookies !" Hoss almost shouted as he licked his lips. " Hop Sing and me maded all them cookies Hoss. See, there's trees, angels, stars, candy canes, santas and horseys !" Little Joe said.

" You did a wonderful job on all the cookies sweetheart. I'm so proud of you. The cookies look almost to pretty to eat," Ben declared.

" I'm proud of you too little buddy. The cookies taste wonderful and look so pretty too," Adam told his little brother who was beaming with pride. They all enjoyed their cookies and hot chocolate.

Hop Sing and Little Joe spent three days making and decorating lots and lots of cookies for family and for friends who came to visit during the holidays.

Everyday wonderful smells filled the house with all kinds of baking that Hop Sing was doing. He had made cakes, breads, and cinnamon rolls.

For a special treat on Christmas morning, Hop Sing and Little Joe had made a large amount of cinnamon rolls that Hop Sing had put together in the shape of a big tree.

He and Little Joe had covered the roll tree in white frosting, then added colored sugars sprinkled on the tree. It looked almost to pretty to eat. Soon the family and Hop Sing were thoroughly enjoying eating this cinnamon roll tree.

Even though it was the first Christmas without Marie, Little Joe's mama, who had died in a riding accident months before, the day turned out very nice indeed with dear family friends who came to spend Christmas with the Cartwright family.

The day with filled with love, fun and wonderful food made so lovingly by Hop Sing, and best of all, dear friends too.

The End


MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

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