Hot Guy had to work today. (That's not the miracle, you cynics) We had planned to relish our holiday at home, with just us, by baking cookies and having a decorating extravaganza. Hot Guy, in case you are one of the few people reading this who doesn't actually know me and/or hasn't been reading me for a long time, is the cook in the family. He is also the patient one in the family (unless it involves screaming children before 11am). So the children associate cooking with Daddy.
In fact, Ironflower may have teared up when she found out that Daddy would not be here for cookies.
But I actually can handle cookies, especially when I use ready made dough. So I assured her that all would be well.
Because if you can't lie to your children at Christmas time, when can you?
I tried not to be lyingI planned things strategically. I rehearsed what I would say when they flung frosting, or spilled things all over the clean floor or otherwise got on my nerves. I decided to not even attempt to take pictures, because often trying to capture the perfect image distracts me from the experience at hand. Plus I didn't want dough in the lens of my camera. I even mentally organized how I would set things up at the dining room table to minimize mess. I reviewed my cookie painting procedures (egg yolk, food coloring, paint brushes, raw cookies) and my cookie decorating procedures (pots of different colored frosting, blunt knives, sprinkles). I timed things so that Hugmonkey was napping through much of it. I took a preemptive Excedrin Migraine.
And it went beautifully. Seriously.
We had a great time. Hugmonkey even frosted a cookie, in between licks of the spoon. Nothing burned. Nothing was flung. The cookies are beautiful. The children are happy. I didn't even freaking burn myself.
It's a Christmas miracle. Or a sign that I should plan every day like a military commander.
Either way, we're having pizza for dinner. There's only so Christmas luck to go around.
2 comments:
sounds perfect! congratulations!!
My daughter wanted to buy gifts for everyone in her preschool class, so I talked her down to homemade cards and cookies for everyone. The cards were a genius idea because she loves to draw and whenever she was pestering me for something to do I could say, "Go make a Hanukah/Solstice/Christmas card." The frosted cookies were a much bigger project than I anticipated and I only had one small child involved (we did it over the course of two days while my son was at school). So, hats off to you.
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