Cookies!

It's been a while now, but I wanted to put this on anyway. We have a tradition with our good friends, the Johns, to make Christmas cookies every year. Now that our children our school age it is a bit tricky to find the time. Last year, in fact, we didn't decorate at all. My girls were very sad to miss out on Mrs. Johns's delicious sugar cookies. This year we realized that the Monday after Valentine's Day was a holiday so we set our calendars. The kids had a great time decorating Valentine's Day cookies. It's amazing how much they have grown over the years. The first year we decorated I think Avril and Trevor were only 2. Amanda was still finding sprinkles to sweep up in her kitchen months after Christmas was over. This year we swept up after the "decoration/free artistic license time" was complete and there was almost NOTHING on the floor. Amanda and I looked at the little pile of crumbs in disbelief for a moment, and then smiled because our kids were off playing and we could sit down for a quiet lunch. It's funny how little things like that make you realize that in spite of what seems like an endless age of temper-tantrums and messes that the kids are growing up. Our time for decorating cookies with them is very short. Then Amanda and I will sit together over lunch and yearn for those wild kids to come running past us one more time.













Pictures: 1) Avril, Anderson and Ryan getting started. 2) Trevor, Eowyn and Maia diligently creating a canvas. 3) 6 sweet kiddos 4-6) Avril, Maia and Eowyn after the first round of decorations 7) The finished product. We're thinking of opening a cookie kiosk at the mall called "Instant Sugar Coma."