The weekend has just disappeared and I am not sure what I have done really, though I did enjoy a glass of wine last night. Also got to meet up with a friend for lunch and some good conversation. After that though, it was unloading a trailer full of wood for our fireplace, which was a Christmas gift from two years ago. We don't use wood to heat our home often, but we do have a fireplace that we use in the winter, or for some mood setting and, our sauna is woodfired. We haven't had a sauna for a long time though, mostly to save on the wood. What we did do though is what we do every Christmas.
Bake Gingerbread.
This is a premix gingerbread dough that comes "fresh" from the freezer and is also gluten-free, which is a must for Smallsteps and my wife. We had it last year also as a test, and it is pretty good. however, none of the premixes are great. They don't do "soft" gingerbread in Finland either, as they do in Germany. It is all crispy, which is good too - but I have a bit of a tooth for ginger, so it is all passable for me.
But, the gingerbread itself is not really the point of this exercise, it is just a nice way to spend a couple hours together as a family. Rolling out the dough, cutting the shapes, putting the first batch in the oven while moving onto the second and then, making silly things out of the leftover scraps.
My wife praying to her god ^
And of course, the smell is fantastic! The entire house smells like gingerbread now, which is perhaps one of the smells my heaven would have in it, as it is glorious. Though, I am not going to heaven - I am not allowed in.
One of the other things that stands out each year, is how Smallsteps is advancing as she gets older. Each year there is more confidence and greater capabilities, as she looks to increase her independence. Just last year she needed help with the tube of decorating glue, now she was getting into it, boldly making her own design that actually looked like she meant it to look. And then, she is so much more precise with placing the decorations. It almost takes some of the fun out of it that she doesn't get messier.
Lately, I have been thinking a lot more about how I want my life to look and it has been influencing me in many ways. One of the things is that while we as a family spend a lot of time together doing things, I want to spend more of that time creating something. It doesn't have to be anything fantastic, or anything that is overly useful - but just something that we have made together, whether it be gingerbread like today, or some origami cranes like the other day.
I want Smallsteps to stay in touch with her creative side where she applies her imagination at a practical level, because I believe that this is something that will be important for her future, whether it be from a working perspective, or just for personal satisfaction. These days, with so many distractions and draws on our attention, it is very easy to neglect building the parts of our persona that actually matter. If we don't develop our abilities to create, all we become, is another cookie cutter.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
