Reindeer poop

Last night I made 160 Reindeer poops for the Christmas market at mom's new home.   Really Reindeer poop are chocolate macaroons, but they aren't like the recipe you can find on the back of the shredded coconut bags.  No, Reindeer poop is my mom's creation and it is part of our Christmas traditions.  She only made them at Christmas and many times over the holidays we would make up many batches because my brother David would eat at least 30 a day, they were like crack to him, highly addictive.  Only I have the family recipe and it's in my  mind because like her pie crust and bread recipes, they were always in mom's mind and never written down.  All I can say is that mom's recipe does NOT use milk.  It's a cup of this, a cup of that, a teaspoon of this and a tablespoon of that, 3 to 4 cups of this, a cup and a half of that, 6 to 8 cups of this and 6 to 8 tablespoons of that.  I know what the this's and that's are, but no one else does and it was always and still is our little secret.  David has searched through mom's recipes looking for THE recipe, but he has never found it.  He tried to replicate it a few years ago but couldn't and he had to swallow his pride and ask me to make them, and I did.  This year when I made them, the only ingredient that was missing was my mother.  Oddly, last year around this time she called me for the recipe because she couldn't remember it.
Mom enjoyed the market, as did many residents and locals who came for the event.  Two of dearest friends came to visit me and mom and the day was absolutely wonderful and it gave me something that I usually don't get, Christmas spirit.  Even my dad, who usually hates shopping, bought a few things and some Reindeer poop.  He was a little pissed off that I only made enough for the event and none for just him.  Still he bought a couple bags and they were gone by the time I got home.  Yep, just like crack, highly addictive and once you start eating them, you can't stop.
There was a little bit of sadness for me too.  Mom loved Christmas and would start her shopping in the summer.  By December, the hallway closet was packed with the little things and big things that she had bought.  But mom hated wrapping the presents, so at a very young age, she taught me to how to wrap and curl the ribbons and make every corner just perfect, like Origami.  Years later when I was on my own, she would leave the x-mas wrapping for me to do when I came home for a visit and seriously, a couple years she actually had me wrapping my own gift.  One year when I was in Vancouver and said I wasn't coming home, she bought the train ticket so I could come home and I swear it was to wrap her gifts.  Another year when I insisted on hosting x-mas, she brought a car full of gifts for me to wrap.  It didn't matter that her friends, neighbors and co-workers would all get the gifts late.  No, what mattered what that they were nicely wrapped with ribbons and bows and expensive paper.  No gift from mom ever came in a dollar store gift bag. 
On the first of December she would do her x-mas cards and that was a three day event because the woman sent out at least a hundred a year, even more.  She would MAIL a x-mas card to the neighbors next door and even to me.  Off course she would also get many x-mas cards in return and by the middle of December the house was strings and strings of x-mas cards.  She had a system with her cards.  If she sent one to you and did not receive one back from you, then you were off her list for the next x-mas season.  I hate doing x-mas cards and gave it up years and years ago.  On the year that I did not send one to my mother, she called me.  "Lisa-Marie, why didn't I get a x-mas card?" she asked.  I responded "Because mom, I want off of your list".  Mom made such a big deal about it and she send me one regardless and kept sending me one even though I begged her to stop.  She believed that with her persistence I would start sending x-mas cards again.  Well, she was wrong and I will say that I haven't sent a x-mas card in over 20 years now, unless it's to my daughter with money or gift cards.  I got my last x-mas card from mom, last year and now I wish I had kept it.
With the x-mas season upon us I have just one x-mas wish.  I hope mom stays with us for even just one more x-mas.  It won't be the same, nothing will ever be the same, but as long as she's here, I'll be happy with that.

Mom's new slippers.