Halloween Sugar Cookies

This is kind of a cheater post because it's the same cookie recipe we used for the 4th of July sugar cookies. But the frosting is different - buttercream instead of glaze. And the shapes and decorations of course. And it took practically ALL DAY to make these so, gol' darnit, it gets its own post.What can I say? It's worth it because the girls just LOVE to decorate. And I LOVE to eat sugar cookies. And they're so easy to give away by the plateful, requiring no explanation beyond, "Happy Halloween!"
When I lived in Colorado, going to my friend Kat's house for sugar-cookie-making was tradition. Halloween and Christmas for sure; sometimes Easter or other occasions. And Kat had the goods - cases of fancy colored sugar from Williams Sonoma, professional food coloring, every extract, every shape cutter, every sprinkle, jimmy, ball or confection you could imagine. We would break them out, listen to music, and painstakingly make a masterpiece out of each cookie. My favorite was for Halloween - Kat would make these awesome bloodshot eyeball-looking cookies. So creepy. We had no kids in those days, thus more energy and focus; fewer distractions.

These days, she's got three, I've got two, and we live 2,000 miles apart. But that's what I think of when it's sugar cookie time. It's the easiest tradition in the world to stick to.