|
COOKIE CUTTER HOLIDAY FUN AT BRICK LIBRARY
By Keith Hagarty
 | | --Photo By Keith Hagarty Jaida Tomzack, 8, and Julia Knight, 6, show off their freshly decorated gingerbread men at the Brick branch of the Ocean County Library this week. For more photos from this event, please visit our photo galleries at www.micromediapubs.com. |
|
Bowls full of marshmallows, sprinkles and frosty icing, just to name a few, were some of the ingredients for fun as dozens of kids and their parents crowded into the Brick Library this week for a gingerbread man spectacular.
Perhaps the only thing better than decorating her cookies with all the candy toppings, for 8-year-old Jaida Tomzack, was devouring her creation.
"My favorite part was getting messy with the icing," said Tomzack.
From gingerbread men and gingerbread women to Christmas trees and other holiday treats, the cookies were a hit with the kids.
"I just like decorating them," said Tomzack's friend, Julia Knight, 6. "I really liked the red and green sprinkles, and the icing."
As the children's librarian at the Brick branch for the past seven years, Michelle Brzozowski always enjoys this time of year.
"It's just really cool," she said. "It's a time for them all to come and just have a really great time, and just sort of kick back."
Overseeing the gingerbread frenzy, Brzozowski said the closer Christmas gets, the more excited the children become.
"It's a nice easy-going afternoon after being in school all day," she said. "They're all excited for the holidays and this juices them up even more. It's really fun to see how they react to it. Some of them just get so crazy with the decorating. It's really wild to see."
Having supplied all the fresh cookies for the kids, Brzozowski recalled when she was a little girl, baking and decorating cookies each holiday season with her mom.
"We did it every year," she said. "Some of my favorites, well of course, gingerbread men and sugar cookies, the standard Christmas cookies you decorate- I love them."
Watching each child get such a kick out of their cookie creation was what Brzozowski's job is all about.
"They're all really good kids," she said. "We have a really strong core of really great kids here."
With so many cookies to go around, Brzozowski praised the parents for all their assistance and support for the library's programs.
"They all love it," said Brzozowski. "It's just the fact that the library is doing something fun, and anything with food, they love it."
This time of the year tends to pull everyone in a million directions at once, which makes the library even more appreciative of Brick's parents who make it a priority to get their kids involved.
"It says a lot because there's tons of other things they could be doing," said Brzozowski. "It's really a tribute to the parents who instill in them how important the library is just for their well-being and the community that brings them.
"I would say 75 percent of the kids in there are regulars who come all the time," Brzozowski said.
Some of the library's other upcoming programs include the "Cowboy and Octopus" puppet show based on the popular series of children's books by Jon Scieszka. The show was developed by Brzozowski and three other children librarians from the county library. Each tale shows the adventures experienced by the two very different friends.
The librarians will be taking the puppet show on tour throughout the Ocean County Library system over the coming months.
The Brick branch never has a shortage of programs for kids and adults.
"We always have stuff going on," said Brzozowski. "For kids of all ages."
| 
)