Halloween Traditions....

Holidays to me are basically just a good excuse to make sugar cookies. These cookies are too dangerous for me to make more often than that due to my voracious love for this particular kind. Who doesn't love the soft dough blended with cream cheese frosting topped with an m&m or other tasty ornament based on the holiday it surrounds? My children have come to love this cookie making tradition as much as I. It is very interactive, with a delicious ending. I make the dough, and while it is chilling we clean the house. (Extra incentive to get some work done). Then we all wash our hands and assume our positions at the kitchen counter. Everyone grabs their own rolling pin, the cookie cutters placed in an equal opportunity location, and we are off. Each child is given a generous glob to work with, while I then quickly roll and cut the rest myself. Onto a cookie sheet and into the oven they go. Jackson eats most of his glob, while Kennedy and Ethan are finally getting the hang of the roll, cut, place method. (Landon napped during this portion of the event). While I clean up and finish baking the kids venture off and entertain themselves for awhile. I make the frosting while the cookies cool. "Froster" is also my designated position. Maybe in a few years I'll delegate that out, but for now it belongs to me. All the frosted cookies are then placed on the kitchen table where once again the kids arrange themselves in their designated areas. I place a pile of candy corns and m&m's in front of them and they go to work. I figured Landon would eat his candy too quickly to notice what he was actually supposed to do with it, but I underestimated his ability. He grabbed a cookie close to him and set to work. I was pleasantly surprised. The other kids accomplished their job beautifully with little mistake. I was impressed with their creativity this year.

Another tradition in our family is to make ghosts and bats and hang them from our ceiling. This was started when Ethan was 2 and I was desperate for an entertaining activity. It began with me cutting and the kids decorating with markers. As the kids have gotten older the activity has expanded to meet their ability. This year we were able to venture into the world of origami bats and ghosts with arms. This year has been my favorite by far.