Cookie Baking

I've been baking Christmas cookies with my girls tonight.  We've been working on them most of the afternoon. We wanted to send them in for their teachers tomorrow as a little treat.  I've built this up for the girls all week.  "Don't forget, we're baking cookies on Thursday".  They were excited, I was excited...yeah Christmas! 

Until......today came. 

I just didn't feel like making cookies.  I was tired.  I didn't want to make a huge mess in my kitchen.  I found myself thinking that their teachers probably didn't like cookies anyway.  As I waited for the girls to get home from school, instead of getting all of the ingredients out and being prepared, I sat by the window and tried to think of ways to get out of it.  I didn't want to disappoint the girls, but I really did not want to bake cookies today.

Then lucky me!  The perfect excuse to not bake cookies: they came home really cranky!  They were so fussy.  Emily just wanted to lay down for a while, Abby was mad that Hannah had to stay after school for Bible club, and Jessica (my helper) was late.  Sarah came skipping happily down the road from the bus stop, like she always does.  God knows I needed Sarah in my life, she's so consistent.

I laid Em down, calmed Abby, listened to Sarah chatter about her day, and Jessica came just in time for me to get Hannah.  By then, I really, really didn't want to make cookies.

With Hannah back, I began to try to make the girls happy and turn the day around.  It seemed like out of nowhere I heard myself saying "you can't be upset now, we have cookies to make".  I wanted to slap my hand over my mouth and take it back, but they were instantly quiet.  Sarah started jumping up and down and Emily and Abby were smiling.  Before I knew it I was pulling out ingredients. 

Emily and Abby have this cool little "switch" I plug the stand mixer into and they activate it when they hit a button.  When the button is pressed in the mixer goes, when it's released it stops.  It gives them some independence when they are helping in the kitchen.  We are usually very careful about moving the button out of reach when the mixer's turned on. 

Not today.  We mixed the wet ingredients first, of course.  The dry were about to go in.  Sarah lifted the top of the mixer to stir down the sides.  At that exact moment, little Miss Abby hit the button.  Buttery, sugary cookie goo flew EVERYWHERE!  All over my kitchen, my kids, and Jessica.   There was a series of gasps as everyone stopped to survey the damage. 

In that frozen moment, the confused Grinch saying "what if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more" popped in my head and I smiled.  Abby broke the silence in the room when she started to giggle.  Then she laughed.  We all laughed.  What else can you possibly do at that moment?  Abby was so pleased with herself.  We cleaned cookie goo off the fridge, floor, wheelchairs and kids.  How silly it was that  I hadn't wanted to make cookies.

I smiled at my girls and their homemade cookies and thought about how blessed I am. 

Moral of the story:  we all have to open our hearts to the joy around us and the moments that can make us laugh.  That giant mess could have just proved my point, but we have been through so much and there are so many things in my life that I can't fix, the giant mess is only allowed to be butter and sugar.  It made my cranky girl laugh and her cranky mama to get over it.

Now--off to find a way to keep the Christmas spirit in the house while keeping Jeff out of the cookies.