Gingerbread Groundhogs

Tomorrow is Ground Hog Day. As a Penn-sylvanian, I can tell you with pride that Ground Hog Day has a special place in my heart. It was always the buzz on the playground before class started. Did he see it? Did Phil see his shadow this morning? I couldn't tell you how many years the actual weather corresponded to the predictions of that groundhog, but the pomp and circumstance surrounding his wise and valued "meteorology" still make me smile.

My mom would always make goundhog cookies. I'm not kidding. She has a cookie cutter in the shape of a ground hog's profile. She'd make a batch of gingerbread and cut each Phil out of the brown dough and put half a raisin on his head for an eye. It was fun to eat his head off first. Same goes for a chocolate Easter bunny. I always start at the ears.

Nowadays my mom works too much and my little brother is away at college. Busy days filled with conference calls and no kids to make cookies for. Makes me kind of sad. She has a home office and she's not more than 30 seconds away from the kitchen, but I know there won't be any gingerbread Phils this year. Wonder if he'll see his shadow tomorrow. Are we in for 6 more weeks of winter? Will Spring come early? Here in Miami it has no bearing on our weather. The palms and warm ocean breezes care not for snow. But I think of my days in PA and wish I was back there, anxiously awaiting that poor, scared animal's prediction, with a couple of Phil cookies in my lunchbox.