Christmas At Grandma's Was Alway Fun and Always Eventful

As a kid, we would go to my grandma's house for Christmas.  It was a long drive from Idaho to California.  We would pack up the car the night before we were to leave.  We would get up really early in the morning, hop in the car and be off.   We would drive until the sun came up.  Dad would stop so we could eat breakfast.  I always got biscuits and gravy.  I loved biscuits and gravy.  After breakfast, we would get back in the car and head down the road.  My sister and I would color, play games or sleep.  We would stop in Winnemucca for lunch.  The cheapest places to eat were in the casinos, so that's where we stopped.  We'd head back down the road after lunch.  We would drive past Battle Mountain and into Reno.  After Reno was Donner's Pass.  A few times, it was snowing over the pass and we would have to stay in Reno.  Once we ventured over the pass in the snow.  We had to put chains on the tires to make it.  I'm sure my dad was really nervous.  Most of the times we went, it didn't snow.  After Donner's pass, we were basically there.

Christmas at grandma's was alway fun and always eventful.  Like most families, not everyone got along. There were tiffs but for the most part us kids stayed out of the way.  My birthday is just before Christmas so we would celebrate it.  I felt lucky because I got to open presents before everyone else.  Our tradition for Christmas was to open all the presents from each other on Christmas Eve.  Then the kids would go to bed early so Santa could come.  Morning would come (well almost) and us kids would get up.  We would go climb in bed with Grandma and Grandpa.  They would tell us it was too early and make us lay on the floor and wait.  We, of course, would fall back asleep.  After a couple hours, we would be awake again.  This time we would be successful in getting the adults up.  We would spend the next few hours opening presents, eating breakfast and just enjoying the morning.

A couple Christmases it actually snowed.  That was so much fun.  We would get sleds and slide down the hill next to the house.  One year some of the cousins decided to go sledding on the road.  It wasn't a well travelled road so there really was no danger of getting hit.  I didn't go with them but they said they had a blast.  Later on, people in cars had a hard time getting up that hill in the road because they had made it slick by sledding on it.  I thought it was kinda funny.  Some others of us, went up in the hills to go sledding.  We had a blast.  It was different from the hills we sledded on at home.  This hill was really long.  You could slide forever.  It wasn't as steep as the hills at home either.  It was much easier to walk to the top.   I'm sure I was exhausted by the time we were done, but I had so much fun.

When I think back to Christmas at grandmas, I think of desserts, cousins, and lots of fun.  As an adult now, one of my favorite desserts at Christmas is ginger snap cookies.  However, I don't bake them long enough for them to be snaps.  So they are just ginger cookies.

Ginger Cookies
2 ¼ cups flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

¾ cup butter

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup molasses

1 egg

1 t baking soda

1 t ginger

1 t ground cinnamon

½ t ground cloves

small bowl of granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375. In a large mixing bowl combine 1 ¼ cups flour and the rest of the ingredients.  Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed till combined.  Beat or stir in remaining flour.

Shape dough into balls.  Roll ball in granulated sugar to coat.  Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until tops are crackled.  Do not over cook.  Cool and serve.