Toddler Time ~ Neighborhood Cookie Baking

A few months ago, a sweet elderly neighbor of ours stopped by as we were working on putting up a fence in our backyard.  She told us about an earthquake prepping group she wanted to set up with some of the people in our neighborhood and invited us to be a part of it.  Now, Nate and I are not preppers in any sense of the word.  Maybe we should be more intentional about it but that’s where we’re at.  Even so, we decided we’d go to the meeting even if it would just be to get to know some of our neighbors.

We’ve had two of these prepping meetings so far and, I can honestly say, they’re so much fun!  The people who come are at different levels of interest in the earthquake preparedness side of things – some are more like us, coming for the community, and others are really into it!  It’s been fascinating, though, to get to know these people we live near, people we may wave at as we’re all getting into our cars but would rarely, if ever, talk to one another.  All it took was one lady being concerned about the potential of an earthquake here in the Pacific Northwest and now we’re all becoming friends.

Nate and I long to be a part of community wherever we are and, now that we have an “in” with quite a few of our neighbors, we’ve decided to go a little further.  It’s our goal in the next few months to have all the people who are a part of this group over for dinner…  If they’ll come.  It’s weird inviting almost strangers into your home but we’re weird so why not do it?

It’s a little awkward still to just invite people over so we thought Christmas was the perfect opportunity to make cookies and deliver them with a card that includes the invitation.  We can then follow up with each person or family, letting them know we’re serious!

Since we really try to make learning opportunities for our little men wherever we can, we wanted to get Caleb involved in the process.  We put on some Christmas music, got sugar cookie dough prepped, and went to town with the cookie making.  It’s so fun talking to Caleb about why we’re making cookies for our neighbors, telling him that we’re going to have them over for dinner, and explaining to him that Jesus wants us to love our neighbors just as much as we love our friends.

Decorating and delivering the cookies will be coming next (of course, Caleb will be included in both of those activities as well) and, hopefully, quite a few dinner engagements will be in our near future!

Do you know your neighbors?  We’re all craving relationship and, even if it’s awkward, I’d encourage you to get to know yours!

Your Turn:
What are you doing to teach your children about caring for their neighbors?