Decorating Christmas Cookies with a 2 Year Old is Totally Over-rated

Sadly, I'm totally not kidding.

I thought I was in the right frame of mind.

It was going to get really messy... and I thought I'd be 'cool' with it...

And for someone who loves to spread 'butter on bread'

you would have thought she'd jump at spreading

'icing on cookies'

But something about those green sprinkles mesmerized her.

I tried to decorate cookies as well...

And discovered that I get really mad when I can't get

the icing to spread evenly.

So what is a girl supposed to do? Well, she QUITS, that's what she does. I managed to frost and 'decorate' some round shaped cookies and THEN we officially 'quit'. I was taking them to our local Post Office as a little gift from Claire because there are 4 people who we regularly see when we go in (which is alot... especially when I have sales). Her favorite is actually Bob, but Marcie, Liz and Sean are a close 2nd.

I had used the 'whipped' frosting that comes in a plastic 'can' thinking it would be a better choice. WRONG. It's super sticky, and I don't think it 'hardens'. So if the edge of one cookie touched another they got all messed up. SO annoying. I ended up putting the cookies in a pyrex dish... totally not the festive cheer you'd think when presenting cookies, but at least I got them out of the house.

And to make matters even worse, I just frosted one of the sugar cookies with chocolate frosting (my favorite) and took a bite. Not that great. In fact, I almost couldn't eat it. (key word being almost)

So to Bob, Marcie, Liz and Sean - I apologize for the groady cookies, but just remember it's the thought that counts... right? (please say yes... please say yes... please say yes...)

Conversations with Claire

So I'm actually one of those people who LOVES to hear about funny conversations that kids have with their parents. And now that Claire has graduated to 'conversationalist', there have been many times where I have been quite amused. The mind of a two year old is complex. Sometimes you think they don't understand a thing, and then the next minute you realize they know more than you do. Weird.

So here's a few of my favorite recent conversations with Claire (and it won't hurt my feelings if you stop reading at this point):

•  I love hearing, 'Mom - can I listen to 'Toxic' please?' when we get in the car (and yes, it's the one by Britney Spears - don't call CPS on me)
• I love hearing her sing 'The Wonder Pets' theme song
• The other morning I wanted a few more minutes of sleep when Claire came in. So she sat on the bed by me. When I sat up she said, 'Mom! You're getting up! You can do it! Good job Mom!' and then she got down and ran to my side of the bed. I was watching her, smiling, while she said, 'Mom - don't stop, you can do it! Good job Mom, you're getting up!' (nothing like having your 2 year old act like you getting out of bed is an amazing accomplishment)
• When going to the mall one night Claire turned to Bob and said, 'Dad - you got any cash?'
• Today Claire asked me, 'Did Daddy wash my penguin pajamas?' I said, 'no, I did'. To which Claire replied, 'oh... great job Mom. Great job.' (Nice to know that my laundry skills meet her expectations)

 I must admit, Claire makes me smile, and now that I'm finally caught up on all my orders, I want to do nothing but have conversations with her.

Snow in the City

Okay, so maybe 'city' is a bit of an exaggeration... as we're more like the 'suburbs', but getting snow of any kind of a rarity out here.

Good thing I had snow clothes ready to go this year. (Last year I waited too long and everything was gone and I couldn't find anything to fit her) So even though it was over-kill, I still put every bit of 'snow clothing' on her (including her snow boots).

Claire had a fabulous time as we basically stood outside our house.

I think it's mostly gone now... and it's only noon... but I have to admit - that's my kind of snow! No shoveling, no power outages... it's just enough to make you like it. Perfect.