Christmas Cut out cookies

Every year since we bought our house, except for the year I was pregnant, we have been blessed to host Thanksgiving for my family.  I love Thanksgiving week.  My sister and her family come down on Wednesday night and stay with us. We have our Thanksgiving dinner for lunch on Thursday, then the Willingers continue their travels to Louisville to spend time with RJ's family.

My parents come down on Wednesday, and spend most of the long holiday weekend with us.  Before the boys came along, my mom and I would leisurely shop a bit on Friday while Dad and Brian would watch football, and do little things around the house. 

Now that we have the boys, and they are getting older, most of our weekend is spent just spending time together.  This year, my mom and I decided we were going to bake some Christmas cut out cookies.  Grandmas always want to bake cookies with their grandkids, so it was the perfect.  We stirred the cookies up on Friday, then started in on baking them on Saturday.

My mom rolled out the cookies, and asked the boys if they wanted to help make cookies. Lincoln was eager to jump right in and see what this was all about.  Plus, he wanted a cookie!

Jackson quickly decided this looked like fun, and wanted in on the action.  He watched and patiently waited for Mawmaw to line-up the cookie cutter.....

 

 Then, he dove right into the fun!

 I really thought the boys would do a few cookies, get bored with it, and then go play.  Boy, was I wrong!  The helped with about half of our 4 batches of cookies!  They probably would have helped with all of them, but Mawmaw and I were ready to just get the baking done so we distracted the boys with a movie.

My mom will likely want to kill me for posting these pictures, but they capture a memory that can never be erased.  I especially love this picture below....

                                                                                             

What's so special about this picture?  I love the way Lincoln is looking at my mom.  It is a combination of adoration, love and patience.  He loved and adored her for allowing him to help, and for spending time with him.  And the patience....well, he was just waiting for it to be his turn!