GRANDMA'S MAGIC SUNSHINE COOKIES

It all happened the spring Sarah went to stay with Grandma while Mommy and Daddy went to get her new baby brother. That is when Sarah learned about magic sunshine cookies.
It was one of those gray, rainy days that happen in April. Sarah didn't like rainy days very much. There was nothing fun to do when it rained. Sarah liked to be outdoors. She liked to play Hop-Scotch and jump rope and play house under the lilac bush. Sarah like to look for pretty stones and play giant steps with her shadow. She liked to watch for butterflies and look for ladybugs and listen to the bluebirds that lived in Grandma’s birdhouse sing their pretty songs. You can't do those thing in the house. You can't play those games when it is raining. Rainy days weren’t much fun at all. You can only color for just so long and then it gets boring. You can only play Find the Thimble for just so long and that gets boring too and Sarah had already looked at all her story books she had at Grandma’s house.
Sarah stood with her face pressed against the window watching the rain come down. Rainy days are boring days, thought Sarah, even at Grandma's house. "Grandma, why does it have to rain? Rainy days are no fun at all," Sarah sighed.
"It has to rain so the flowers will grow and bloom in May. April showers bring May flowers." Grandma explained to a whiny Sarah who really wanted to go outside and play. "Come with me, Sarah. Come into the kitchen. Let's make some cookies and when they are cool we will frost them and you can give them sunshine faces. We’ll have a tea party. Maybe a batch of sunshine cookies will tease the sun out from behind the clouds and the rain will go away."
"Maybe," Sarah said but she sounded doubtful. She followed Grandma into the kitchen. Sarah liked cookies and a tea party with Grandma’s homemade cookies would be sort of fun.
“Are they magic cookies.” Sarah asked?
“Maybe they are. Maybe they aren’t,” Grandma said and winked at Sarah. “Well, just have to wait and see.” Grandma got out the eggs and sugar and spices, the butter and cream and flour. She put an apron on Sarah and an apron on Grandma too.
Sarah stood on a kitchen chair at the counter beside Grandma. Grandma broke two eggs into a bowl and showed Sarah, “Look,” Grandma said, “see what sunny faces these eggs have. Maybe if we whisk them up real good all this sunshine will spread through the cookies and tease the sun out from behind the clouds when they see how good these cookies are going to be.”
Sarah grinned, “Grandma. Are you making up a cookie story,” she asked?
“Maybe I am and maybe I’m not,” Grandma smiled as she measured out sugar to make the cookies. “You’ll have to wait and see.” They measured all the ingredients and put everything they needed to make the cookies into a big bowl and mixed it all up real good. Sarah tasted the cookie dough, not once but twice, to be sure it was just right. It was. Sarah said so.
Grandma put the dough on the cookie sheets and popped the cookies in the oven to bake. In ten minutes they would take them out again. Oh they sure smelled good. Sarah liked cookies, especially Grandma's cookies. Grandma’s cookies were the best.
While the cookies were baking Grandma rubbed all the yellow off the outside of a lemon and put it in a little bowl and set it aside. “This yellow from the peel of the lemon is called zest,” Grandma told Sarah. “We will need it to make the sunshine frosting for our cookies.” Grandma squeezed and sliced up more lemons and put them in a big pitcher with sugar and water to make the lemonade. She stirred it all up and put the lemonade in the refrigerator to get cold.
Making cookies with Grandma was always fun and once the cookies were done, oh that was the most fun of all. Sarah got to eat them, just two, with a tall glass of Grandma's homemade lemonade. "You don't want to spoil your dinner," Grandma would always say when Sarah asked for more.
Once the cookies had cooled Sarah and Grandma made frosting, a white frosting with lemon zest in it to make it look sunshiny yellow and taste all lemony good. Grandma spread the frosting on the cookies while Sarah took tiny golden raisins to make sunshine faces with big, happy grins. She put the cookies on a plate and Grandma set the plate of cookies in the middle of the big dining room table.
“Now,” Sarah asked?
“Now,” said Grandma as she poured two tall glasses of lemonade. “Now we can have our tea party but before we can eat our sunshine cookies we need to thank God for them and for all the other good things that God gives to us. I think we should do that right now,” Grandma said as she slid Sarah’s chair up to the table and sat down next to her. “Bow your head and close your eyes. I’ll say a thank you and then you say a thank you and when we have said all our thank yous we will eat our magic sunshine cookies. Just maybe by the time we are finished the sun will be shining again.” Grandma took Sarah’s hand in hers and began to pray.
“Dear God, Thank you for Sarah. She is a very special little girl and I am so happy she is my granddaughter. I love her very much.” Grandma paused. “Your turn, Sarah,” she whispered.
“Thank you for Grandma,” Sarah said, “She makes real good cookies.”
“Thank you for Sarah’s new baby brother. We are so happy to have baby Jonathan in our family. Sarah, it is your turn,” Grandma whispered again.
“Thank you for Mommy and Daddy and my new baby brother too I guess but I wish you hadn’t made him so small. He can’t even play.”
“Sarah, he will grow just like you do,” Grandma said and continued their thank you prayer. “Thank you, God for our home that is safe and warm and dry and thank you for the rain so we have fresh water to drink and water for baths and to wash our clothes and dishes and keep our home clean, and rain so we can have water to make the flowers and the grass and our gardens grow.” Grandma paused again waiting for Sarah to say her thank you.
“Thank you for sunshine and pretty flowers and Grandma’s bluebirds birds that sing so pretty and squirrels and chipmunks and bunny rabbits and butterflies and ladybugs and pretty stones and dandelion puffs and kittens and lollipops and ice cream cones and lemonade and story books and my teddy bear and the moon and the stars at night. Did you know there are a zillion million of them and thank you for Grandma’s magic sunshine cookies to tease the sun out from behind the clouds so I can go outside and play and that’s all I can think of.” Sarah took a deep breath.
“Amen,” Grandma said as she opened one eye to peek out the window. “I think that about covers it for now. We can have our tea party and then maybe we can go outside for a walk.”
“But it is raining,” Sarah said taking her hand from Grandma’s and reaching for a cookie.
“Is it, Grandma said? “Come and look outside.”
Sarah ran to the window. Sure enough it had stopped raining and the sun was shining and as Sarah looked up at the sky a beautiful rainbow appeared.
“Sunshine, the sun is shining. It‘s not raining any more,” Sarah exclaimed.
“And look, Sarah, there’s a beautiful rainbow in the sky,” Grandma smiled. “Look at all the pretty colors.”
“Grandma, I think your sunshine cookies really are magic.” Sarah took a big bite of her cookie.
“I don’t know about that,” Grandma smiled, “but they sure do taste real good, especially with lemonade and even better with your sunshine faces on them.” Grandma took a bite of her cookie too and they sat back down at the table to enjoy their tea party. Magic sunshine cookies always put sunshine in your day, even a rainy one.

Annette Bromley