We're Growing Up...

Ever since I can remember, every Christmas my family would make our famous Rodick family sugar cookies.  It started off with my mom making the dough, then my dad, sister and I would bake the cookies.  You have to take them out of the oven at precisely the right time in order to insure the perfect amount of softness.  We never let my mom do this because she would always burn them! Then, we would all sit around the kitchen table and decorate them together.  This is something that I look forward to every year.  We moved around a lot growing up but even though things were constantly changing we always had our Rodick family traditions.  Even after I went away to college and got married, we carried on the tradition.  We introduced Sean to the art of sugar cookie making and I must say, he is pretty good!  For the last 23 years, I've loved spending this time of year with my family.

This year though...it is different.  Sean and I are on the other side of the world and for the first time we are not with our families.  When Christmas music started playing on the radio we would immediately change it every time songs like I'll be Home For Christmas or There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays came on.  It made us way too sad.  As we get closer to Christmas though, we're starting to do better.  It's definitely hard to be away from our families and we wish that we were with them but we're realizing that this is just a part of growing up.  It's exciting to think that we are starting our own traditions now and one day we will carry on these traditions with our kids.  We have complete peace that we are serving exactly where the Lord wants us and we are surrounded by a great church family to support us during this time.  A lot of families have asked us to join them on Christmas which has made us feel so loved.  We are joining our friends Matt and Gemma for Christmas.  Gemma's family is coming to town for the holidays.

Sean and I decided that we needed to carry on my family's tradition and make the sugar cookies for our friends here in Australia.  We are also going to be making some other American holiday treats to share.  So even though we are sad we're not home in the US for Christmas, we are praising God for his wonderful blessings and enjoying "growing up" together and starting our own traditions.

Sean is a great cookie decorater :)

Sean's Cookies

Sam's cookies