This holiday season was a real kick-in-the-pants.
These past 6 months have probably been some of my most stressful, what with starting my own private practice, co-founding a local music class, taking care of 2 young children, and worrying non-stop about creating a healthy work-life balance (!). Well, by the time the holidays came around, I was forced to stop by the power of the all-powerful flu. Yes, it hit us...hard. At first, it was just me, but then the kids also got it, leaving my husband to fend for himself (which he did very well, since he somehow managed to escape illness this time around).
Cookie-wise, this meant that the cookies I had baked while healthy were slowly getting stale as I wouldn't/couldn't dream of decorating them while in my flu-coma, which lasted at least a week. A bummer too, since they were going to be pretty cute designs (inspired by Container Store wrapping paper...I suppose I'm prepared for next year.). However, we were able to find an upside to having pre-baked cookies sitting around the house.
Once we were all feeling better, we wanted to make up for some of the fun missed while nursing ourselves back to health over the holidays. It was cold outside, we had a few more days off of work/school, and we decided to spend a glorious and impromptu morning together sharing the joys of cookie-decorating as a family, all in the comfort of our pajamas.
I made some icing, put it in bags, and we all went to work.
Some of my 4-year-old daughter's creations:
And some of my 2-year-old son's:
Although they had a bit more of a crunch than most of my cookies, they were definitely the most beautiful (in my unbiased opinion).
To all sit around the table creating, playing, and laughing together was a joy.
Hands-down, this is one of my very favorite family memories and simply an awesome way to start the new year!
