Thanksgiving is next week and I’m sure you and your family have big plans.  Mine has been sending email messages for a week deciding on a menu.  The person who hosts the dinner takes care of meat and then everyone brings something.  I’m a planner and without a plan, I am sure we will not be able to pull this monumental task off.  Probably we could, but what if everyone brought only sweet potatoes!  So I plan.

I wrote a blog this week for a winter blogfest that needed to be about the holidays – winter, Christmas, or whatever holiday your family celebrates.  I wrote about Christmases at my grandmother’s many years ago and it brought back memories.  In a tiny house located in northeast Arkansas, there was more food than could be consumed and more than enough love to go around.  My grandfather’s deep baritone voice sang Christmas carols in the living room around a wood burning stove with a tea kettle on top spewing steam to moisturize the air.  My grandmother’s cookies fresh out of the oven gave the whole house a cinnamon scent and the fresh pine tree in the place of honor – the picture window – twinkled with lights and homemade ornaments.

The house smelled of Christmas; pine, cinnamon, and the bowl of oranges that sat on the dining room table.  It was Christmas, it was family, it was love.  To this day, when I smell these scents in combination or alone, that is the smell of Christmas in my mind.

To honor this time of family and love I am posting my grandmother’s Snickerdoodle recipe.  It might be the same as yours.  I don’t know where she got it – probably a recipe exchange at church or something – but it is a keeper.  Remember, chill at least two hours or overnight.

BaaBa’s Snickerdoodles

Mix together:

1 Cup soft shortening

2 eggs

Sift together and stir in:

2 ¾ Cups sifted flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp soda

½ tsp salt

Chill at least two hours (overnight is better). Roll into balls the size of a small walnut (black walnuts, English walnuts don’t grow in Arkansas).  Roll in a mixture of 2 tsp. sugar and 2 Tbsp. cinnamon. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake until lightly brown but still soft (8 – 10 minutes) in 400-degree oven.