Christmas Cookies and Tree Decorating...

Christmas is a season to celebrate the birth of our Savior and there are so many ways that we can do this. We have some traditions in my family that I've grown up doing each year that include getting a new ornament each year and decorating the Christmas tree as a family. This year we added making Christmas cookies as a new tradition that our kids can enjoy each year.  Here are some of the pictures from the festivities!

 Brookelynne and Aunt Amy hanging their ornaments!

 Brookelynne helping put all of Uncle Josh's yearly ornaments on....

 Showing Brookelynne his singing ornament....

 Amy and Josh putting this year's ornaments on the tree!

 Brookelynne commandeered Aunt Amy's scarf as well as some new ornaments for herself.... :)

 Brookelynne helping Mama and Daddy with their ornaments...

 Brookelynne's new sign! :) Her with it, and her with Grandma too!

Then we started on the cookies! We had to let Brookelynne cut the cookies, of course, and we all took turns trying to get her to cut them all. After a few minutes she had the basic idea, and every time she would push on the cookie cutter, she would grunt really loud! LOL. It was so cute! 

 (Picture of her 'grunting')

 Uncle Josh showed Brookelynne that the cookie dough was edible, and she was pretty happy about that! lol.

Once we had cut all the cookies, Brookelynne and I went into the living room and Brooke took a short nap while the cookies baked and cooled. Then when they were ready, we sat down and decorated them as a family. It was so cute to see Brookelynne squeeze the tubes and try to get the icing out, and then she would dump, literally, the sprinkles out. :) 

With all of the extra sugar sprinkles that were on the table, I thought that Brookelynne should learn that they are just as edible as the cookies! :) So I put her finger in her mouth, dipped it in the sprinkles and put it back in  her mouth. :) She didn't need any more help figuring out what she should continue to do!

Then she showed us her tongue, a new trick she's learned! lol. That's our girl!

We had a wonderful time and I'm so excited to get to do this each year with the additional kids and all the different ages! We're so thankful for the opportunity to use these traditions in the years to come to teach our kids about Christ. From the way that Christmas trees began (a way of sharing the gospel, with different colored bulbs, like the colored beads on gospel bracelets) and praying over cookies as we make them to go to our church's prison ministry so they can be used to share the gospel with prisoners all over the state. Even a reminder each year of the blessings we've received based on which ornament we got to represent that year. May we each remember the true reason for the season and enjoy the blessings that the Lord has given us this year. Merry Christmas!