Photo Phone In

Is my life glamorous? Maybe, but it’s mine. #humble

Krystal and I saw this train recently on a late night walk.

I’m nuts about peanut butter cookies. When I was growing up we were very poor. When Christmas time came around, rather than spend money that didn’t exist, my mother used to make large batches of cookies as gifts for her family and friends. Her sugar cookies were very popular and always in high demand, but it was her peanut butter cookies I looked forward to most. She eventually had to make a batch just for me, as I could not restrain myself from eating part of everyone’s Christmas presents. In my mind, they are synonymous with Christmas and home and family. After she died, they were among the many things I missed about her at Christmas.

This year, Krystal secretly obtained the ingredients for an updated version of this recipe, baked them while I was sleeping one night, and then gave them to me for Christmas on the first day of my vacation. That way I could enjoy them throughout the entire holiday. This was thoughtful on so many levels. They were phenomenal. I finished them by the last day of my break, but I’ll remember them forever.

When people say “it’s the thought that counts”, they might mean “I thought about this at all”. Which is fair. It does and you did. But whatever consolation prize the deployment of that phrase was meant to justify had to borrow gravitas from better, truly thoughtful gifts. They had to steal a few of Krystal’s cookies. And that’s fine. She made a bunch of them.

It’s more about getting the habit going at this point. Here’s a random picture.