Stale Candy

What do you do on a Saturday night when Mitch is off hunting? Why, pull out Grandma's October presents of course! Mitch's Grandma is an extreme coupon-er and it is honestly the best thing to have ever happened to me. She ALWAYS finds the best things and gives them to her grand kids. Many a smiles have happened in the Holt household because Grandma has stopped by. She gives each set of her grand kids a present-filled advent calendar, constantly brings us decorations for Valentines Day or Halloween, and supplies everything necessary for family gift exchanges. It is so fun to see what Grandma has thought up for each of her grand kids. 

This year, she brought us a Halloween rice krispy kit! Watch out world! Alex can make rice krispy treats - triple threat! Zane and I plunged into making them late Saturday evening and it was such a nice way to spend our time together. Zane was so curious about what was going on but also very patient with me. It helps that I had candy corn to coax him (;

While Zane had absolutely no will power to decorate once he had candy in front of him, he did humor me for a bit and sprayed some black frosting into his mouth, which then adequately coated the counters and his clothes before I could blink once. 

Doing this with Zane made me think about the traditions we have as a little family and how we can mold and shape each holiday just by what we do. I've recently been reading some articles about teaching and one principle that stood out to me was the thought, "whatever you do, your children will come to expect that." Recognizing this and thinking it through when I do things has helped me to analyze what I am doing and why.

With Zane, there are times where I admittedly need a break or where I just don't feel like being 1,000% engaged, which is just fine. It is perfectly normal to need to step back. But in these quiet moments where Zane and I can cook together and just be carefree, I want to hold onto every second. It has been so fun to see Zane develop as this rambunctious little fart that still has a sensitive side too. I can't wait until I can teach this little guy to cook his own scrambled eggs as well, for my own sanity, of course. 

I'll be spending the next few weeks savoring every Halloween-ish moment that I can and thinking up some family traditions that we can start doing with our little family now that Zane is mostly aware of what is going on. I'm thinking rice krispies need to become a regular thing, but next time a little less stale.