There are cookies, the ordinary kind like chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin. And then there are COOKIES, the works of art that bring even more Christmas cheer with every tantalizing bite.
Elgin’s own Kristina Sehi is the creator behind that special Christmas COOKIE, or a treat for most any special occasion. Using a sugar cookie as her palette, she uses a scribe to paint intricately with icing. This time of year, the cookie may become a wreath, Christmas tree or light, Santa glove, snowflake, or snow globe.
For Sehi, a dedicated mom of two children, ages five and two-and-a-half, plus a fulltime court clerk magistrate in the 7th Nebraska Judicial District, it’s what she calls her “creative gene” that attracts her to cookie creation.
“I love Pinterest, cookies popped up, so I took a class last April, gained more confidence by July, got hooked, and the rest is history,” she quipped over her lunch break at her Pierce office. Carving out time on weeknights after the children are tucked in bed and on weekends, she’s excited her business, currently under development, just might take off.
Called The Cookie Zone, the business is visible on Facebook and Instagram. So far, she’s picked up a few sweet deals filling orders of two, four, even six dozen cookies and is booked through the end of 2022. The time it takes to fill an order depends on the intricacy of the design, generally three days from start to finish, since each icing step requires drying time.
When in cookie caper mode, “it doesn’t seem that long,” she said. “I get in my little groove and do my thing, (with Hallmark) movies playing in the background.”
Nothing says Christmas love like a plate or bag of homemade cookies. Sehi, who with her husband Judsen own Elgin Body & Glass on the south edge of Elgin, hopes her creations do just that.
Merry Christmas! For the complete story turn to this week’s Elgin Review.
