The Amorphous

"Amorphous" is a Mr. W kind of word. In fact, though I understood the gist of what it meant by his context, I still looked it up.

From Dictionary.com

AMORPHOUS:

a·mor·phous

  [uh-mawr-fuhs] 

adjective

1.

lacking definite form; having no specific shape; formless: the amorphous clouds.

2.

of no particular kind or character; indeterminate; having no pattern or structure; unorganized: anamorphous style; an amorphous personality.

3.

Petrography, Mineralogy . occurring in a mass, as without stratification or crystalline structure.

4.

Chemistry . not crystalline.

5.

Biology . having structural components that are not clearly differentiated, as the nuclear material incertain bacteria.

His context? He referred to some cookies Baby Girl and I made as amorphous.

The cookies in question?

These:

Amorphous is a totally appropriate term. So is blobby (my made-up term for them). Though you can't tell by the picture, these cookies were originally cut with cookie cutters. Perfectly lovely shapes that went into the oven looking precisely what they were, and came out...amorphous. You can kind of see what shapes they were if you look reeeaaally closely and have a good imagination.

Top row, l-r: gingerbread man, reindeer face, stocking

Middle row, l-r: stocking, Christmas tree, shooting star

Bottom row l-r: bell reindeer face, ornament

Yes, go ahead and laugh. I'll wait.

Turns out Baby Girl and I used the wrong sugar cookie dough which turned our Christmas cookies amorphous and not identifiable as having anything to do with the holiday season. But, I have to admit that once the frosting was on and some colored sugar...it didn't matter much what the cookies looked like. They were still delicious.

I hope your holiday baking went off without a hitch. And, oh, you totally know I'm going to use "amorphous" in one of my books. Keep an eye out for it. 

***

PS: The gingerbread men cookies reminded me of a Christmas past and the telling of a love story. If you want a quick smile, go back and read the recounting: http://www.booksbyheather.net/2010/12/pictures-of-day.html