Weekend Surprises

What started as a quiet, rainy weekend,

ended up full of activity.

Our family Christmas celebration is on Saturday.

The gifts are wrapped.

The cookies are baked.

The decorating is finished.

All that remains is to cook the food for Saturday.

(not turkey!)

It seems that the universe was not about to let us rest on our laurels, however.

Life is like that.

It has a mind of its own.

Hubbs and I were out doing chores Sunday morning when my cell phone rang.

It was Mack's and Easton's Mommy.

Their Daddy had the flu and she was scheduled to work a 12 hour shift

at the hospital.

Hubbs and I hopped in the car and headed down to town to pick up the kids.

And although our weekend was totally different than we anticipated,

we had a blast!!

Mack made her first batch of cookies...

a special treat for her Mommy and Daddy.

I measured the ingredients for her and she added them to the bowl

(and the floor!) 

She learned how to turn on the mixer (and to not get her fingers near the beater).

I turned my back for a second and Mack had decided that the cookies needed more salt

(out of the corner of my eye I saw her turning the open salt container over 

top of the mixing bowl.)

After a lesson on how important it is to not use more or less than what a recipe calls for,

I scooped the extra salt from the batter... luckily the mixer had not been running!

She floured her surface,

and rolled the dough,

 and cut out the shapes.

While the cookies baked, we had a hot chocolate tea party by the fire.

(Thank you Lana, for the special tea cups!)

Cleaning up the dishes were next on the list.

After cooled, Mack decorated the cookies all by herself.

Beautiful, in a way that only a 3-yr-old could do.

We had lots of help for chores.

Easton's very favorite activity is to ride in the gator, so we went for a long ride around the farm and into the woods.

The day might not have been what we had envisioned...

but isn't that how life is?

And in the end.... it was way better than we had anticipated.