Can't Catch Me, I'm The Gingerbread Man

I am committed to treasuring as many moments as possible with my boys, while they are young. While this isn't always easy...simply because of the busyness of life, the distance to which I can stretch my patience, and the balance between showering them with attention and spoiling them. However, I don't want to miss out on any of those "Big Trees" that so often stand in plain sight, yet are invisible to us.

So today, in honour of a new book and the fact that Christmas is definitely just around the corner, we made Gingerbread Men...and Trees and Hearts. From scratch, we mixed, rolled, and cut these little guys out of our first ever (together) batch of gingerbread cookie dough.

This was actually quite a feat for me. Anyone who knows me well, knows of my (ah hem) slightly anal tendencies. It's no secret. The t-shirts must be folded the same way, the socks too. Even the cloth diapers are folded in a certain way. No kidding. Today was an exception. I consciously made the effort to "allow" the boys to make a mess; to get in there and just bake the way kids should bake. And it was great. The spirit of The Season is beginning to fill us.

And while Tait spent more time licking the spilled molasses and Noah wanted to mix anything in sight, they had a great time making "their own" shapes.

And I had a great time...just being.