Homemade Treats ~ Mom Made the Best

Mom died in March 2015. I miss mom all the time.  At Christmas the loss is felt somehow deeper. 

This week's prompt is homemade.  

Mom was an amazing cook & baker. I have so many memories wrapped up in food. 

Mom always mailed boxes of homemade special treats to our house & the houses of my siblings, at Christmas. 

Every year mom complained about how expensive postage was, and how heavy baking was. She never missed sending our childhood favourites every Christmas. 

My favourite was shortbread cookies.

One year while visiting at Christmas mom noticed that I picked the candied fruit off, and tossed it in the garbage. 

She said that next year she would leave the candied fruit off. 

I look at her horrified. 

Picking the fruit off for the trash was part of my shortbread experience. The little red & green stain left behind on the cookie I was eating enhanced the cookie experience. 

The following years the cookies arrived with the candied fruit exactly as they always had been. 

I suspect mom muttered while she spent money and time attaching candied fruit she knew I would not eat. 

She didn't want to disappoint me at Christmas.

Every Christmas that I don't receive my special delivery of shortbread cookies I am sad. 

Last year (Christmas 2020) my husband made me shortbread. 

He made me the whipped type after I explained that the traditional type would make me sadder since that is the type mom sent. 

Xmas 2015 was our first Christmas without Mom. 

In the years since missing mom at Christmas has not gotten easier.

Every treat I have OR don't have reminds me of mom.

The letter my mom's sister sent (December 2015) that first Christmas  without mom left me laughing and crying.

Mom and her sister

Every Christmas I re-read this letter. 

It helps with missing my mom.

The letter below has been redacted for privacy - only my name remains visible. The original included the names of my siblings. 

In Auntie Bobbi's special way she helped bring mom into that first Christmas without her. 

This letter made me laugh and cry at the same time. Auntie Bobbi had a way with words - she told a story well. 

Auntie Bobbi died this past summer.

This is our first Christmas without her. 

Re-reading this letter from Christmas 2015 helps me hold them both close.

We miss them both

It doesn't get any easier.

Missing family at Christmas time!

This is why I search - 

Cause ... 

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!

***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***

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