Today, my young neighbour and I made Christmas sugar cookies—the kind you roll out, cut into Christmas-themed shapes, bake, then decorate with icing and sprinkles. My Brazilian neighbour wanted to give her son the experience of a Canadian Christmas tradition. Truth be told, I've never made Christmas sugar cookies. I've baked lots of things in my lifetime but never rolled-and-cutout sugar cookies. So I did a test run yesterday to make sure that the recipe I had chosen would work well. It did.

When I arrived at my neighbour's house, her son greeted me at the door and we headed straight to the kitchen. Gustavo was ready to get cracking. He pulled out bowls and measuring spoons, while his mom set out the ingredients we needed. I put on a medley of Christmas music to bring a little holiday feel to the ambience.

Gustavo set to work immediately. He spooned flour and sugar into measuring cups (describing the flour as "fluffy"), scooped baking powder and salt with measuring spoons, took charge of softening the butter in the microwave, added ingredients to the mixing bowl, and operated the stand mixer. In no time, we had soft dough that he gathered together into a ball (which he said felt like "Play-Doh"). Using a tiny rolling pin, he rolled out a portion of the dough. Then he used two cookie cutters—one shaped like a Christmas tree and the other shaped like a gingerbread man—to cut out cookies (he said he liked pressing the cookie cutters through the dough, which he described as "crunching"). He was remarkably adept and fearless in the kitchen. I'm not sure I was as adventurous as he was at seven years old.

With one batch of cookies in the oven and a second tray of cookies standing by for their turn to be baked, we turned our attention to decorating. Knowing that the cookies we made today would need time to cool before being iced and sprinkled, I pulled out the batch of cookies that I had made yesterday. Using a small pouch of white ready-made icing and three types of decoration—red, green and white sprinkles, red sugar, and white snowflakes—Gustavo confidently undertook the decorating. He created a unique look for each cookie. I was impressed. I dubbed him the great artist, le grand artiste, o grande artista.

My aim with this baking endeavour was to have fun and create a memorable experience. It was not to produce perfect cookies. I tried to turn over as much of the process to Gustavo as possible. And he willingly assumed responsibility for every task that he could. While the initial objective may have been creating an unforgettable event for Gustavo, the experience proved to be just as remarkable for me.