Christmas Cookie Baking

The last few days Jonah has been a bit of a mess, or "extra special" as Luke would say. He's been super whiny, and only wants me (and has now started calling me mommy.) He walks around saying "mommy, mommy, mommy", and will come grab my hand or pull on my clothes to drag me to wherever he wants to go. I am trying to be sure that I find a balance of doing things with him, sitting on the floor playing and reading with him, but also making him realize that he will have to wait if I'm eating dinner or talking to Luke. Well, at our small group on Sunday evening, Luke shared all of this as a prayer request, stating that Jonah was being "extra special." Right after Luke said that, Jonah piped up with a very emphatic "Yeah!" He's a stinker and he knows it!

This past Saturday was the day my mom had scheduled out for us weeks ago to do our traditional cookie baking and exchange. My mom, both my sisters, my mom's best friend Kitty, and Kitty's friend Anne were all there this year. I think between the six of us, we all went home with over 12 dozen cookies. So much sugar and butter! And so many yummy cookies.

Noelle came with me, while Jonah stayed with Luke (such a nice break, and apparently he was really good for Luke!) Noelle helped some, but spent a good amount of time playing with Becky's old dollhouse and the new train set my mom got for the kids. Noelle has been a part of our Christmas cookie baking and exchange since she was born, and I hope the tradition continues!

After baking most of the day, my parents and Becky watched the kids so that Luke and I could go to a Christmas party some of our friends invited us to. It was so nice being able to hang out with friends, eat delicious food (I was already stuffed from all my cookie sampling!), and have some kid-free time.

December is busy, and it's been a lesson to me that it's okay to say no to some things. We missed out on a few other events on Saturday, but you can only do so much. One of the things we talked about in my one MOPS group was that when we say no to something, we're saying yes to other things, and we have to weigh what our needs and our family's needs are. The example the speaker used was that when we said yes to being at MOPS that day, we were saying no to doing laundry or running errands. Rest is needed, time with family is important, and in this season, focusing on why we celebrate Christmas needs to be a priority.