MEDINA, Minn. — The house in Hamel has a grand Christmas tree in the living room. But the home's most important holiday tradition is in the kitchen.
“Hey, Michaela, turn on the oven,” Deb Connelly shouts across the room to her niece.
The oven, the microwave and assorted small appliances are working in concert.
A crew of five women scurries about.
“For me, food is love,” Deb says, surveying the room. “So, here's cookies.”
Deb isn’t interested in a Tupperware or two filled with Christmas cookies. That’s not the way she rolls.
“Thirty-six hundred last year,” Deb says.
Put another way, that’s 300 dozen Christmas cookies, made mostly over three days, in Deb’s kitchen.
By the time this weekend is done, the women will have broken last year's record cookie crop by another 23 dozen, for a total of nearly 3,900 cookies.
Their feat has been years in the making.
“We don't have memories of not doing it,” Michaela Bremmer, Deb’s niece says.
Michaela points to a picture in an old photo album. She’s in her mother’s arms, at her aunt’s house, baking cookies.
“I'm what?” Michaela asks. “Maybe 8 months old?”
An album page away, Michaela’s younger sister, Shelby Durst, is photographed as a preschooler who’s possibly eaten more frosting than she’s spread.
“That's my favorite,” Michaela says giddily, “Look at her blue frosting mouth.”
Looking on, Shelby smiles warmly. “This is what we’ve done my entire life,” she says.
Another photo shows Shelby and Michaela as teens, back at Deb’s house baking Christmas cookies.
“Look at our chokers, so 90s” Michaela observes.
While some things haven’t changed, cookie baking has gone beyond what the former teens could have ever imagined.
These days, Michaela, Shelby and their mother, Lori Quady, arrive at Deb’s house on Friday. They sleep — very little — there, spending every waking hour baking Christmas cookies.
Think of it as their version of deer camp, but instead of slaying deer, it's 27 pounds of butter.
“We kind of know everyone's strengths,” Deb says, as she assigns cookie baking tasks.
Standing nearby, Michaela laughs and adds, “I didn't have any strength last night, so they sent me to Target.
The fifth member of this year’s cookie crew is Lisa-Marie Hanson, Deb’s friend and former coworker.
“Some of those cookies were on the platter at work,” Lisa-Marie says, “and I thought, how can I help?” She’s been part of Christmas cookie weekend ever since.
Finished cookies will find their way to the homes of dozens of the crews’ family members, friends and coworkers.
“I ship cookies to probably four or five different states,” Deb says.
Don’t picture the women sipping wine as they bake.
They don’t.
Diet Coke is their beverage of choice.
“This keeps the energy up,” Deb says, taking a sip.
All of them agree this annual weekend is about more than cookies.
“Anytime I can be with my girls and my sister, it’s the best,” says Lori, Deb’s younger sister.
Conversations flow freely from one topic to the next as the women mix and bake and decorate more than a dozen varieties of cookies.
“Somebody always uses a baking term that could be taken the wrong way,” laughs Lisa-Marie, as the crew rolls dough into balls.
A Saturday Night Live reference is inevitable.
“Schweddy,” Lisa-Marie says to giggles from the crew.
In a few days, the women will put the final touches on Christmas in their own kitchens, having already filled their hearts in Deb’s.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
Deb shared some of her favorite cookie recipes with KARE, so check them out at the links below.
Boyd Huppert is always looking for great stories to share in the Land of 10,000 Stories! Send us your suggestions by filling out this form.