Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Baking Up Traditions

We have been doing our activity advent calendar since December 1st.  I have to say that its been a big hit so far.  But today was definitely the best day yet.  Today we made Christmas cookies.  Its my great grandma’s recipe, and she told me that she used to make them when she was a little girl.  There’s something incredibly sweet in Hayden making the same cookies that his great-great grandma used to make.  I took a bunch of pictures and am going to take them to her when we head up to Michigan for the holidays.  (Yes, my wonderful Gram is still alive- 92 years young!)



We make Christmas cookies every year.  But this year was extra fun.  For the first time Hayden could actually cut out the cookies, shake the shaped dough into his palm and hand it to me to put on the cookie sheet.  He helped me cut all 4 ½ dozen cookies.  Then we took a break for lunch and rest time.

The break in the activity was great, after that though, he was ready to get back at it.  I frosted while Hayden decorated.  He did a great job and actually decorated them all!  I couldn’t believe it, I thought that he’d get bored and I’d end up doing most of the decorating.  Nope.  He had a blast and told his Daddy every detail about it.  He even remembered decorating cookies last year in our Memphis home.  That time he only decorated four cookies, this year…over four dozen!

Mason was great too.  He sat contentedly in his high chair squishing up banana (occasionally eating some too.)  When he started to fuss I just cleaned him up and set him on the floor and he happily played at our feet and crawled all over the living room.   The afternoon followed the same pattern.

It was so wonderful to see something that I did with my Mom, and that I’ve done every year since moving out of the house become a family tradition that my own sweet boys can be part of.

Rolled dough, baked cookies, frosting, and a sprinkling of colored sugar equals a joyful day to be cherished forever.

I even set the camera up and took some pictures of myself with the boys.
The lighting leaves a lot to be desired, but I still love all the moments...


Mason loved exploring while we baked.



The finished product.  Yummy!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Happy Craftmas!

So yesterday I looked at my project list and suddenly grasped that, um, tomorrow (now today) is December 1st and I had yet to finish Hayden’s Activity Advent Calendar!  YIKES!  So I worked on it until one am, realized that I had about three hours of work to go, wrote his first day’s activity down, put it in the incomplete calendar and went to bed.




Today Hayden happily pulled open the first box and didn’t seem to mind a bit that most of the rest were unfinished and (if he’d opened them up) empty.  But the partial advent calendar (and the date!) made me realize how much there is to do.

For Christmas I have several projects going.  Felt balls for Mason, a satchel (just like in Tangled) for Hayden.  Decorating our homemade Christmas tree- where we make almost all the ornaments for it. Qwillows for the nieces, hats & mittens for the boys.  Not the mention the Advent Calendar currently sitting on the table staring me in the face. 

Yes, much to do, along with the shopping, preparing holiday dinners, going to parties, wrapping (lots), sending out Christmas cards, Arnie traveling (lots), and then heading up to Michigan for the holiday itself.  Much to do indeed.

But honestly, I’m not overly worried about it.  If I were, you’d never read this post because I’d be too busy going crazy with projects.  I’m rather excited about all the fun things that I have to do.  And the deadline means that I might actually get them done.  I’ll finish the calendar tonight.  Then make a list for the rest, and start working on them tomorrow.  Now the state of my house while getting these projects done is, well, a whole ’nother blog post.

Time to get crafting!