{christmas} take five

{christmas} take 4

happy birthday, jesus

{christmas} take 2

baking cookies, jackson style

yesterday jackson and i made cookies together. this was serious business and he deemed it his job to hand me the eggs which meant he was NOT happy when I told him we needed 4 eggs since 3 is his favorite number and wants everything done in "3's" right now...

He was beyond excited to try his creation. But, what he didn't realize was that we were making these to give to our work crews so they were filled not only with sugar and chocolate, but also with gluten, which meant he couldn't have any. So, I pulled a sneaky move and put a couple gluten-free cookies on the drying racks when he wasn't looking and then pretended to use a spatula to put the "hot" cookies onto his plate and then blew on them for at least 5 minutes per his orders before he ate them. 

He had no idea he was missing out on the real thing which I enjoyed thoroughly, leaving me feeling guilty so I also let him try for the first time a few chocolate chips. He loved them, obviously since it's the closest thing to candy he has ever had, hence the chocolate all over his face. While the dirty face didn't bother him, he was totally disgusted when he realized that making cookies leaves you with some flour spilled on your shirt, so he went into his closet and pulled out his pajamas for a quick mid-baking change of wardrobe.

When Dan came home later Jackson was so excited to show him all of the cookies he had baked, so excited that he began giving the cookies kisses... resulting in his face once again being covered in chocolate. Jackson has become a little stingy in giving kisses to Dan and I and yet gives the puppy and now cookies endless kisses... should we be offended?

PS: Don't worry, there were no puppy kisses prior to the cookie kisses.

{christmas 2011} take one

grandma nanny turns EIGHTY!

Tonight we celebrated my grandma's 80th birthday with a family dinner. 80 years. When you're young 80 years seems like a LOT- even just 30 years seems like a lot, but when I was thinking about it on the way home I couldn't help but realize that with as quickly as life happens, 80 will be here way too soon. It's also a little reminder that while we can't slow down time, we can slow ourselves down. We can focus on the really important things, we can stop ourselves from rushing from one thing to the next, we can prioritize where we are and who we're with instead of trying to be everywhere with everyone, we can take deep breaths and be in the moment, we can stop multi-tasking... we can soak it all up so that when we do turn 80 (or 90, or 100...) we can look back and really remember it all and re-live it all over again through stories we'll tell (and re-tell) our children and grandchildren. Happy 80th, Grandma- here's to many, many more!

i'm going to go ahead and assume that anything we could possibly receive for Christmas would fail in comparison to these two. and isn't that was christmas is all about? about realizing that all of that 'stuff' you give and get really doesn't mean a whole lot unless you're surrounded by the love only blessings given to us by God can bring? 

who's ready for Christmas?

...heavenly peace

I am convinced that there is nothing more peaceful than the face of a sleeping baby in the glow of a Christmas tree.