Every year, sometime in the week before Christmas, we must make Christmas Sugar Cookies. This tradition is rigidly enforced by my daughter. I think we have missed one Christmas in her 23-years. I still occasionally hear about it.

I have taken photos over the years of this lengthy, messy process, but I have never documented it from beginning to end. Thanks to a 52 week photography project where I am now thinking about the beginning, the middle, and the end. Thinking about the wide shot, the middle shot and the close-up shot. I am finally making a documentation worthy of putting in a photo book.

I am glad that I gave the camera to my daughter so that she could document my active part in this process. Mallory makes the dough, because she is the baker. My role is to be the dough roller. My marble rolling pin came from my step-grandmother as a wedding shower gift thirty years ago. This may be the only time of year that I use it, but it brings back warm memories every time I grip the wooden handles.

Mallory is the cookie cutter-outer. These are the same cookies cutters from my childhood when I made Christmas Sugar Cookies with my mom.