Traditions...

I am a huge fan of family traditions...maybe partially due to OCD:) So anyways, we have many traditions...some started when I got married, some started when I was a child. Some traditions:
Birthdays: No chores, pick what we have for dinner, lots of decorations around the house when you wake up the next morning, and cake and ice cream with family the night of your special day
Valentines day: not only gifs for your sweetheart but for my kids too, after all I love them too:)
Strawberry Days in PG: must go to the rodeo at least once and attend the parade with everyone(family)
mother's day/father's day: breakfast in bed
Halloween: everyone dresses up, mom and dad included & the house must be decked out by the first week in October
Thanksgiving: Go around the table and everyone says what they are thankful for
Christmas: Cookie Train Day, Christmas Eve Christmas stories and the unwrapping of the inevitable pj's
Those are just a few that I could think of right now but my point is that everyone should have some sort of traditions...
Today we participated in Cookie Train Day. We have been doing this since the kids were little and we lived in AZ. So when we come for visits at Thanksgiving, it's a must. This year we had a very large group of people and I was excited to see so many people involved.
So what is Cookie Train Day? It consists of sickening amounts of chocolate, sweets, cookie(lots and lots and lots of frosting(egg whites, powdered sugar, cream of tartar). Kudos to my mother in law and sister's in law for always being the laborers in getting the frosting and all the behind the scenes necessities in order. And we had two wonderful grandma's involved...Grandma Dorothy and Grandma Gillman.
I don't know the whole story but rather than the Ginger Bread houses, this side of the family makes cookie trains. But it's not limited to cookie trains. For instance, today included and was not limited to: A cookie train portrait, a dragster, Mr. Willowby's Christmas house & tree, the "Oh Christmas Tree" tribute, A CSI Investigation of a train derailment, a polygamist colony(lol), and much more.
The little kids absolutely love it and of course the adults "crave" it all year.
There are some must haves:
Grandpa Hanks: he is the genius behind the madness and everyone must have a picture taken with him and their art work after completion
Frosting: I can't even tell you how many dozen eggs and bags of sugar get used. I know my niece used 3 bag fulls all on her own today for a very large "snow" effect. Way to go Liberty... I was very proud of her but had to end her fun for fear there wouldn't be any left for everyone else to use:)
Graham Crackers: self explanatory
Lots of candies and sweets of all sizes and shapes(helps with creativity)
Big smiles and lots of family and friends.
So please enjoy the pictures of a very special tradition in our family.
And no Grandma was not smoking a cigar, just for clarification, she was playing around with a chocolate cookie stick.