Easter Bake Sale

 My son, Michael, drove up from Alabama for a visit. Well, actually, he came up to help his sister with her Easter Bake Sale. 

This is her last Easter Bake sale. After her Christmas Cookie sale she will be retiring after 40 years of having a bakery in her home. She's always done it by order only and it's kept her busy. For several years she baked and decorated wedding cakes and birthday cakes but the last few years she has specialized in her hand decorated sugar cookies. 

It all started when she was a newly-wed, taking inspiration from her aunt who did a holiday sale of hand-made crafts. This was her first neighborhood invitation: 

Now she is on Instagram and Facebook and sends out flyers announcing her holiday sales via email to her hundreds of customers from a 75 mile radius. 

Shirley, Michael and John busy at work.

Shirley with her chick cookies.

At Christmas it was hundreds of bags of cookies and dozens of gingerbread houses 

ready for her customers to pick up. 

Christopher and Brittany, Shirley's children, were a big part of the baking process for years. 

Forty years of baking...

Congratulations, Shirley, for a job well done.

Your customers are sure gonna miss you but your Mama will love having you around more!