Grandma's Cookies

         
         
          "I miss grandma's cookies."
          Over and over again, my mind kept repeating the same phrase as I shoveled my way through the snow. I was booted out of the house this morning to clear off the driveway so that my parents could go grocery shopping in an hour or so and, with nothing else to do, I obliged. The holidays were over and the mundane reality of life had slowly begun to creep back in as the temporal distance between now and the holidays widened. Presents were wrapped and unwrapped, food was cooked and eaten, and the relatives came and went. All that was supposed to be done was done and everyone, content with it all, went back to normality like everybody else. All that was left was the snow and the chill in my bones.
          "I really miss grandma's cookies" I whispered to myself as a I heaved a large batch of snow haphazardly to the side. She made gingersnap cookies every year and they are my absolute favorite part of the holidays. She'd always smile as a nibbled away at the cookies, eating every last crumb like a unfed mouse. But those days were over, my grandmother went home yesterday and took her cooking prowess with her. It would be another year before I got to savor that flavor again.
          "I wonder if this is the last time I'll be shoveling this year" I wondered with mixed feelings. The driveway was mostly shoveled with only the area from the sidewalk to the road remaining. Everything was drawing to a close. The icicles were dripping away, the snow was becoming mush, and the holiday season was ending. The only solaces I had was the snow was finally shoveled and that the holidays are less than a year away.