Visions of Sugar Canes

I found myself yesterday with some egg-nog and bourbon lighting up my insides and a small kitchen mallet poised over a red and white striped holiday tradition. I was told by my fiancee and her sister that you can't be a man until you have smashed candy canes with a mallet. "Ha," I scoffed, "I'm plenty secure with my masculinity. Way too secure to fall for that line."

Moments later, I brought the mallet down with finesse, with artistry, and looked down to see . . . an intact candy cane. Seriously? I tried again, same result. You should make cars out of candy canes, because they would be indestructible. Wham wham wham, and I hammered with greater intensity, causing the cutting board to jump and spreading fragments of visions of sugar canes all across the counter top.

I tend to think it should not have taken me fifteen minutes to smash four candy canes, but oh well. Moving on. The candy canes went into a sugary frosting to be sandwiched between two small chocolate cookies. Totally made it all worth it.

The reason for this candy cane massacre was not because it was just another Saturday night. It was the annual Christmas cookie production for Marina and her sister and mother.

I love the three of them dearly, but I have to say that the motto of these cookie days seems to be "Hurry up and have a festive, relaxing, family cookie-baking, damn it." Yet somehow, it works! Especially when there is plenty of enhanced egg-nog.

Oh, I also got to say the line, "You put the fun in funnel." They pretended not to hear me, but they heard me, all right. Oh yes, they heard me.

(I would have loved to provide photos of the beautiful cookies and rice krispie treats, but I was busy letting Marina's nephew play Pac-Man on my iPhone--Boden, by the way, is the first kamikaze Pac-Man player I've ever met, determinedly running directly into each ghost, saying "Got him!" Distracting a young boy from the fact that he can't have cookies yet is definitely the reason why I have no photos of the finished product to offer; it certainly has nothing to do with me having finished my own tin of cookies already. Not at all.)

Items learned: candy canes are hardy; parchment paper is great for baking; chaos is a little boy who wants sugar; and Marina's mom has cunningly figured out how to let Marina and Valerie take over the kitchen while she stays out of the way. I adopted a similar strategy. I mean, I spent the time bonding with Boden, providing a very important source of male energy, by which I mean I knew how to play Boden-Monster and race around the backyard. Some would say that was the most important ingredient for the cookies we made. That, or the candy canes.

Or, you know, not.

In all sincerity, it was an absolutely fun weekend, and the cookies turned out wonderfully.

What are your favorite types of Christmas cookies or other holiday treats?