The Christmas Spirit

After a lovely weekend in TN with my family, I drove home to the Atlanta area. I was greeted with 4 huge hugs - will never get over that! And then, we set out to make Christmas cookies. What an adventure. 

I began making the dough. I didn't let it sit for an hour refrigerated - so it was extra sticky. Lesson Learned. 

The boys were very much set on making cut outs. Fine by me. It was a project to show them how to roll the dough and then pick up the excess dough around the cut out. BUT, it was so worth it. Matteo had flour and dough everywhere! Reuben made a "mad man" and some trees. Then he wanted to give the heart cut out to his mom - she has his heart. Matteo made a huge gingerbread cut out man. 

We baked the cookies. Then let them cool. Once the decorating started - all fun let loose. I have rediscovered my preference to not let a 2 year old decorate cookies unattended. Lesson Learned. Alexa poured out all the sprinkles onto the plate and just started eating them. It was hilarious how covered and sticky she looked. 

In the other room, the Christmas Tree was going up with blinking lights and 'memory lane' ornaments. The boys LOVED it. So much so that they left me with lots of cookies to decorate. Lesson Learned. 

After clean up, we watched THE NATIVITY STORY. I love the beauty of Mary's obedience. I love the virtue of Joseph. It's inspirational to me. And it's a BIBLICAL STORY. The story of Jesus begins with obedience and it ends with obedience. And truthfully, it hasn't ended. I play a part. And I can choose to be obedient. Obedient for today. 

As I celebrate the beginning of Advent and the season of Christ's birth WHILE also praying to discern what God and I are going to pilgrimage about - I want to be obedient. Obedient enough for right now. That is what I pray today.