It's all about cookies. Nothing else in the world matters.

Just kidding.

As you can see from the picture, all the hair has gone and there remains... well, nothing. There are tiny bits of my eyebrows left - if that is something to brag about.

Alison (and I suspect MJ had something to do with it) arranged an afternoon of cookie making - we made cookies without eggs... delicious shortbread and gingerbread.

As I sit here - the day after - and look at the lil' men that we decorated, I can't help but smile.

Each decorated cookie tells a story... each will tell you of how it was squished between two sheets of wax paper and mushed until it was "flat enough" with an empty wine bottle. (No, we did not consume the wine ourselves... there were youth at the event...), and then each will tell of how they were so brutally cut from the paper stencil and slowly and painfully separated from the paper once they were cut out.

Then, they will share with you the story of enduring a great heat... a huge adversity and trial period. Sure, it only lasted 5-7 minutes, but that didn't make it any more enjoyable at the time, did it? Then, if you are listening carefully, they will tell you of how they were pulled from the warm oven - a place of comfort they had now grown to love - to be smeared with sugar and water and coated with a new outer layer... the delicious candy and their life was filled with pleasant company once again.

Whatever the stories of these cookies are, however different they begin... one thing is certain: each and every cookie has a smiling face when it is done. Some with smarties, others with sprinkles.

Why? Well, because I made them that way. That's just the way that cookies are supposed to be. Will I be smiling by the time the week is done? Will I have the strength to run 5km? Will I be able to say that this has all strengthened me and I am ready for the next haul, whatever that may be?

Hmmmm....