I really enjoy baking, so this time of year is extra special. I scour through my cookbooks looking for treats that catch my eye to add to the list of 'must bake' cookies. Chocolate chip cookies are always a must have, as well as sugar cookies, oatmeal raisin, and surprise package cookies. Surprise package cookies are Jay and Mike's favorite! It's basically a sugar cookie wrapped around an Andes candy...sweet and minty!
Baking cookies always reminds me of the year of Mike's first Christmas. He was 10 1/2 months old and had crawled into the kitchen, pulled himself up on the table where the cookies were cooling, and, when we caught him, had a cookie in his mouth and in his hand! The look of glee in his face was priceless. We took a picture that's in one of our photo albums...I will have to find it!
Today's baking session went well! I think it went extra well after a certain comment that was made by Mike and seconded by Ellie this morning. I announced that it was cookie baking day and Mike said, "Oh, that mean's you will be stressed today." Ellie echoed the same comment a few minutes later.
My thought...."Oh, yeah? Challenge accepted!" I did it, too! I felt like it was a little nudge from God. It fits in with my 2012 Advent Challenge. Mike's comment made me determined to be more patient and just focus on what I was able to get done, even if it wasn't everything that I wanted to get done. I considered why I even baked in the first place. It was to show appreciation to the people in our lives. So I prayed that having patience and joy in the baking process would add extra love into the cookies!:)
I even stayed calm when I dropped a dozen snickerdoodles into the oven and they broke into a billion pieces!
Kate gave me the thumbs up on the chocolate chip cookies:)
Luke was too busy eating to say anything!
The girls were a huge help making the sugar cookies...and keeping Luke from dumping out all the sprinkles!
It was a fun day! The first of our pre Christmas baking prep days!
