Family Traditions

This first week of being unemployed has been a busy one! My husband has started a new job this week, and our daughter and son-in-law have been visiting with their two little girls, SweetPea (who is 2 3/4) and Rosalie (10 months). With our “resident baby” Aspen (5 months), it makes for a lively bunch.

There’s much to enjoy at each stage. Aspen is nearly sitting up. She has the funnest giggle and loves the jolly jumper. Rosalie is crawling and cruising and snuggling and just plain hilarious. And SweetPea? She is so wise and helpful and funny. She’s just learning to do some puzzles and is fascinated with the wooden nativity set her mommy bought her yesterday.

This is the first year she’s been big enough to make gingerbread cookies with Grandma. She picked which cutters to use: angels, snowmen, Christmas trees, stars, and sheep. She helped push the cutters down and move the cookie shapes to the baking sheets. Later, when the cookies were baked and cooled, she chose an angel for Grandma to spread icing on. Then she looked at the assortment of sprinkles and coconut and needed some of each on the angel. And then she bit the angel’s head off. The rest disappeared quickly, too.

My mom used to have her grandkids over to make and decorate sugar cookies when they were growing up. We didn’t live near enough for my kids to participate often, though, and somehow gingerbread cookies became the decoratable treat of choice in our house. Sometimes we’d have a gingerbread men party and have some of the neighborhood kids in to bake and decorate, as well.

I’m so happy to be able to share this fun tradition with SweetPea! And it will be even more fun (?) when the two babies are big enough to join in. I love being a grandmother, and I’m so thankful to live close enough together to make memories like these with my little girls.