MARK MY WORD: CHILDREN BAKE UP CHRISTMAS FUN WITH MOM

There's nothing quite like baking Christmas cookies, particularly when there are children involved.

My wife, Joni, decided to bake hundreds of Christmas cookies recently and bravely invited Becca and Bailey to participate.

This was clearly an equal-opportunity cooking affair. Why not involve your loved ones in such a holiday tradition? So what if they're only 8 and 5 years old?

Bailey thrilled to the task of dumping flour into a mixing bowl. Becca did her best to beat the dough.

I was just glad they weren't beating up on each other.

With Joni supervising, both girls cracked eggs and rolled dough. They made snickerdoodles, peanut butter kisses, chocolate chip cookies, Russian tea cakes and bunches of slice-and-bake cookies with green Christmas trees and red Santa and "Ho, Ho, Ho!" designs.

All this baking took two long nights and made for a crunchy kitchen floor.

As a veteran dad, I knew my role in this endeavor. I stayed in the family room, only occasionally venturing into the kitchen to watch the cooking capers and the growing lines of cookies spread out over the dining room table.

At one point, Joni enlisted my aid to remove a tray of cookies from the oven. Wearing an oven mitt, I managed to put my fingers into one of the cookies and smashed another on the oven rack.

This put an end to my role as an elf. I quickly retreated to the family room.

This was harder than I thought. It didn't look at all like those Keebler cookie commercials. Besides, our kitchen looked like a tornado had hit it, and that's before I lent a hand.

If enthusiasm is any judge, these Christmas cookies were a hit, at least with our young "elves."

After hours of baking, there were cookies to sort and trays scattered all over the floor to fill. The biggest challenge was keeping fingers and toes off the finished cookies while Joni proceeded to put them on holiday trays for our children's teachers.

At times, Bailey stepped over half filled trays of cookies like she was playing Hopscotch. There's just something about being a 5-year-old that makes one want to live dangerously at Christmastime.

My serious participation in this sticky finger deal was to handle cleanup, a major task given the messy enthusiasm of childhood.

I'm sure Santa will appreciate all this hard work. Santa likes some cookies and milk when he visits our home.

When you think of all those Christmas treats awaiting him on his appointed rounds, it's no wonder the bearded guy can't keep the weight off.

A friend of ours is wondering these days if Santa will make all his rounds this Christmas.

There are serious questions if checking the list twice will accurately determine who has been naughty or nice. There could be recounts and that would probably delay Santa's round-the-world trip much to the dismay of children everywhere.

Personally, I hope not. I can't promise there will be any Christmas cookies left if Santa is late.

All that sugar and spice is really nice. Besides, a guy can get hungry waiting for Santa.