Thank you so much for sharing this. THese kind of lessons really stay with you. DH (age 71) still remembers how his mom would go all out for "company" and how it made him feel like he, and the family, weren't good enough for her best effort.
Also makes me remember how my mom, sis, and I made Christmas cookies every year, until she passed when I was 9. They were the kind you roll out and cut in shapes, our job was to sprinkle colored sugar on them. Lots of fun and good memories.