Oh, how I wish I could say that today went just like I had planned.  That the kids were great, and that everything went smoothly, however, that is just not how it happened.

I was all ready to go, had my ingredients out and ready, and went to town baking.  The first cookies went smoothly, although, I did catch Derek with a cube of butter he had snatched off the counter (the gate was even up!).  He was sitting there nibbling on it, happy as can be, but luckily hadn't done anything else with it.  Check out the little bite marks 🙂 . . .

I put all the rest of the butter out of reach, and then I started on the spritz cookies, which went fine, aside from all the dough Derek was stealing when my back was turned.  It was actually pretty adorable.

Then Derek appeared at the gate holding a half eaten cookie I didn't give him – wow, he is sneaky!  It was then I noticed that he was way too dirty for eating only one cookie, so I walked out of the kitchen, and the scene before me  was awful!!

I guess Derek had stolen more than one cube of butter earlier, because he was sitting on a chair, chowing away at a stick of butter, covered in butter himself.  The problem was, that not only was he covered in butter, but so was my couch, carpet, and quite a few other things in the room.

I was so upset and angry about it, that I couldn't even take a picture of the carnage.  I put Derek in his booster seat, and there he sat until I had finished cleaning it up, which was not easy. 

Soon after that, Derek went down for his nap, and I was able to safely finish baking.  Kevin called me later, and the kids were fighting and screaming, and all I could say was, "Save me.  Please come and save me."  I think we are all done and very ready for daddy to come home tomorrow night.

But hey, if I want to look on the bright side, I did not only finish baking all those cookies, but they are all plated up and ready to deliver.  And I also got to spend the evening at a Christmas party for the women in our church, while Derek and Lily got to play in the nursery. 

**Last night was also quite the adventure, and I kept wondering what would happen next.  First, Derek tripped in the kitchen and cut his lip pretty bad, getting blood all over the both of us.  Then, later on in the bath, he tried to stand up, slipped again, and bashed the same injured part of his lip on the side of the tub. 

So while I was cuddling and calming the poor guy, I sent Lily into her bedroom to get panties and jammies on.  Soon she was calling for me to help her, and when I walked in the room, I saw my still naked little girl standing in the center of a pile of glass, glitter, and water, holding the bottom half of a snow globe in her hand. 

She had been trying to shake it, but did it too close to the dresser, and accidentally smashed the thing to bits.  She even cut her hand.  It was very sad, and definitely had me ready to have us all safely tucked into bed.  Let's just say that it has a been an interesting few days :).