Weekend of Christmas Fun

This past weekend was full of Christmas festivities with family and friends.  I started Saturday with a 7 mile run (2nd longest run since Jonah was born!) in preparation for a day of cookie baking.  I definitely wanted to burn as many extra calories as I could with plans to eat cookie dough and sample the different cookies that we were all making!

 "helping" Aunt Becky mix her dough

For at least the last four years, my mom has hosted a day of cookie baking and a cookie exchange at her house.  This year included my mom and two sisters, as well as my mom's best friend and her daughter-in-law and the girlfriend of her other son.  With seven of us making at least two types of cookies, we had a very full kitchen!  We were also trying to figure out how many sticks of butter we had used between all of us, but we stopped counting when my youngest sister said she would be using 15 sticks for her 2 recipes!  I had baked my brown sugar and toffee cookies the day before and pre-made the dough for my pretzel monster cookies knowing that I would probably be preoccupied with kids for a good bit of time.

we like cookies!

I brought the littles with me since I'm pretty sure my sisters look forward to seeing the two of them more than me, and I knew Noelle would have fun "helping" and getting lots of attention.  My dad held Jonah for a little while, and then Jonah took a nice nap in the pack'n'play while I was able to get some of my cookies baked.  It was definitely a fun day, and I came home with a whole lot of cookies, most of which have been distributed to neighbors and Luke's family.

On Sunday, our one Bible study group got together for our annual Christmas party.  We love the fellowship that we have with this group and the relationships that have come out of it.  For a few years after college I really struggled with feeling like I had close relationships outside of my relationship with Luke, but no more!  God has really provided some amazing friends who love Him and have pushed me to grow in my relationship with the Lord.

thank you for the picture, Kristina!

We ate lots of yummy food and did a white elephant gift exchange, which was hilarious as usual.  We ended up with some practical things- a ledge shelf that our friends have had since they got married six years ago and never took out of the box, as well as a box of band-aids with quotes from Shakespeare on them.  Someone also ended up with the signed picture of our friend Johnny (who has since moved away) for the third year in a row.

Kristina got them at least both looking towards the camera

Jonah was kept out way too late that night, and cried the whole drive home and then slept horribly and napped horribly the next day.  But I think we're slowly getting him back on track.  We love that little munchkin, but he does not leave room for a whole lot of flexibility.  BUT I know this little stage will only last for so long and the sacrifice is worth it (or the sleeplessness that results when we keep him awake!)