Yesterday Rachel and the children made gingerbread cookie ornaments for our Christmas tree.

As Rachel puts it, “when we make cookie ornaments, there’s no need to box them up and store them – we just eat them after Christmas!”

Everything started pretty normally, with each child making and decorating ornaments in their own way.

My eldest daughter was most careful in the construction of her ornaments, making each one of them a work of art.  

But my ten-year-old son wasn’t making any at all.

“Aren’t you going to make some?” Rachel asked.

“Not yet,” he replied. “I’m waiting on ______ to make hers.”

Which he did, then copied hers exactly, much to her annoyance.

“I’m China,” he said. “I just wait for you to make something, then I copy it.”

It was a pleasant evening watching the children decorate an array of cookies in their own ways.

Some of the cookies were a little weirder than others.

And some swerved into pure terror:

The Christmas tree topper my children added is a little different as well.

That is “Screaming Dungeon,” a doll we’ve owned since my eldest daughter was a baby. She named him that when she was little. He often stands in for an angel at the top of our Christmas trees.

As the children worked on their ornaments, I painted a small sketch of them working:

I highly recommend turning off your computer, phone and TV and spending some time decorating Christmas cookies. It’s good for the soul.

Though I made the mistake of letting the baby eat one. Before she had one, she wasn’t as interested in the tree. Now, however…

Have a wonderful weekend.