Buon San Valentino!

Happy Valentine's Day!

For Valentine's Day, I decided to make cookies and prepare a goodie bag for my neighbors. Well, for those of you who do not remember, the Christmas cookie hand-out did not go over well. I was really debating whether or not it was worth the time and effort of making cookies and trying to hand them out again to get to know my neighbors. Then, I realized something. I am making this way too much about me. I keep thinking the purpose in doing things like this are to have my neighbors know and like me, but whether or not they ever know or accept me, this is about something way bigger. The important thing in doing this is that the gospel is shared. The love of Christ being shown to my neighbors is ALL that this is about and I need to fade to the background and let God be the focus. If God chooses to move in their lives through a friendship with me, I'll count it all joy. But if not, He's still made known through the Scripture on each bag. After this revelation, making the cookies was a joy.

Here's the labels on each of the goodie bags:


Cutting out the cookies with my new cookie-cutters:





Then I colored them with the glaze:





Then I iced the edges with icing:








We also put some candy in the goodie bags:





And I even had time (and patience) to make a treat for Jason:


Thank you all so much for your prayers. We love and miss you all!