Sprinkle Madness

It began innocently enough.  A couple of wee tots in need of a project.  A mom's creativity, thwarted daily by a lack of time, energy, and inspiration, suddenly finding its voice in the art of sugar cookie decorating. 


I think it was Valentine's Day, probably around 1997.  Natalie was 4 and Jackson was right behind her at 3 (yes, a year and 10 days apart - but that's another blog).  Actually, probably the weekend before VDay since the brainstorm was to deliver Valentine cookies AND cards at school - in the glorious years when it was ok to bring sugary snacks to share and one didn't have to avoid all acknowledgement of affection in any form lest accusations of harassment be filed against kindergartners....  But I digress.  


So I bought some heart-shaped cookie cutters, a box of Schilling food coloring, and a couple of jars of sprinkles, and whipped up a batch of Betty Crocker sugar cookies. Several hours later the kitchen was a disaster. Multi-colored frosting and sprinkles covered nearly every face and surface, and the cookies themselves were festive little blobs of crunchy, mud colored, expressions of love.       


And so began the madness. With each approaching holiday more cutters and sprinkles were added to the treasure chest: Easter with its bunnies, and tulips, and eggs (oh the wonder of pastel sprinkles!); summer with its butterflies, shooting stars, birds in flight (stars and stripes sprinkles!); the random Mickey Mouse head that came back from Disneyland; Halloween with its tombstones, jack-o-lanterns, and witches (yes - black and orange frosting and sprinkles in the shapes of ghosts, cats, and bats!); Christmas, of course, with all the trimmings.


Then there were a few years there where not much decorating took place - middle school is such a challenging time for parents, isn't it? - and the collection languished, unused but no less loved, on different closet shelves.  But decorating recently made its way back with a vengeance when Natalie and I pulled an almost all-nighter creating cookies for Halloween and then followed it up the next weekend with our take on Nightmare Before Christmas (see Natalie's inaugural blog here on Tuesday).  


I think I recognized it as an illness when we started searching for generic "Fall" cutters (turkeys, squirrels, random leaves and nuts) and sprinkles and food coloring for frostings to match in such exciting shades as brown and copper.  And then we spent yesterday traipsing from one purveyor to another, to a third, in search of the ultimate fall sprinkles to top our pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese buttercream frosting (thanks Parties That Cook!).  Yes, I think we've gone 'round the bend, as they say.