Cookies and Milk

I forgot that it was my turn to bring snacks to our eighth-grade team meeting. I dashed upstairs to the apartment after first period and rifled through the cupboards. Julie doesn’t usually keep too many sweets in the house, but I found an unopened bag of windmill cookies. I grabbed a liter of cold milk and headed back down stairs.

At our meeting, I passed around the cookies. I poured everyone a cup of milk and passed those around too. Everybody’s eyes lit up: ooh, cookies and milk.

Right before our meeting got underway, Kathy, the one Chinese teacher on our team asked me “Why do you serve milk with your cookies?”

What? You’ve heard of or had cookies and milk? I had just enough time before we opened in prayer to quickly say “Oh, milk and cookies is a tradition.”

As the meeting got underway, I made eye contact with Kathy and with exaggerated gestures demonstrated dipping my cookie in my milk and then taking a bite. At first she did nothing, but a minute later I saw her dipping her windmill cookie in her cup of milk and taking a bite.

Mmmmm.

I take my job as ambassador to the East very seriously.

One more person introduced to the joys of cookies and milk.

Maybe next week, I'll bring the ingredients for s'mores.

-Jack

Picture: giving chocolate and cookies (or as they say around here "biscuits") are a popular gift to give when visiting family and friends duing the Chinese New Year. The result is the proliferation of displays like this one.