My Dream Kitchen?

Ask me how I would describe my dream kitchen - and likely I would tell you all about the design. Almost opposite of what we have now! I dream of a big kitchen, center island, country sink, double oven, etc. You know - the kitchens we see in TV or in magazines. But, reality is I have a small galley style kitchen that requires creative packing to get everything into it.... especially since I have somewhat of an addiction to small appliances - I will unfortunately never have enough! 

This is what my kitchen looks like right now.... and yes that is a glass of well deserved wine after a long day! 

  

So, this is not how it looked all day. And that is where the true dream kitchen comes in. While my kitchen is not my fantasy kitchen design, today it was my dream kitchen. All my kids piled into our little kitchen - each with their well-used and somewhat stained apron on. Each with their own little project. But, each project perfectly intertwined with every one else's project. The perfect timing of baking. And, through it all there was laughter, teasing, a lot of fingers "taste testing" and a smidgen of drama. Would hate to imply we are a perfect TV family because Lord knows we are not! (You will see the evidence of taste testing below)

But, at the end of a long day, and a kitchen that took over two hours to get free of a couple of loads of dishes, dropped M&M's, finger smudges and stuff I don't even recognize - we have a recipe for family togetherness and a lot to show for it!  So here is a bit of the magic everyone brought to the kitchen - 

Alexandra made peanut butter and swirl kisses cookies:

  

Michael whipped up a double batch of brownies using the same recipe I learned in summer school at his age:

   

Jack made is very own double batch of M&M cookies. He also helped mash the bananas for our banana bread:

   

Tommy carefully made a batch of vanilla ice cream and lent his expert "taste testing" to everyone's special projects:

 

Peter was in and out of the kitchen sprinkling us all with love and giggles. And I made up another batch of blackberry jam (yes - the berries were still on sale!). 

    

We tied all our projects together and have goodies for our neighbors that we plan on dropping off tomorrow. 

   

So, back to the dream kitchen - today I had my dream kitchen! I had the kitchen I close my eyes and dream of when I am at work missing my kids like crazy. Today we spent the time together creating with our hands - and at the end of the day (even if super late) can put our feet up and smile. 

God bless you all as we continue to prepare for Christmas.... and let our recipe for life this week remind us the real reason for the season. As my kids say - Happy Birthday Jesus!

catherine