When my kids have friends over, I always like to have something yummy coming out of the oven. Mainly because I am seriously outnumbered and I like to keep them on my team. So today I baked my favorite recipe for Classic Sugar Cookies, from the Southern Living Incredible Cookies cookbook.

But I had another reason altogether for shaping them into pumpkins and icing them for Autumn. I am trying to stop myself from running full speed into December. Because today I am decorating our house for Christmas. I am putting up all four Christmas trees and pulling all of my favorite things out of boxes and saying “OH! I love this!” with each thing I lift. So I am baking pumpkins because what I really want to do is bake candy cane cookies and sing Jingle Bells. But that would be crazy, right?

Classic Sugar Cookies

1 cup real butter

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. real vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. sea salt

Let butter soften at room temperature in the bowl of a stand mixer. When softened, beat with paddle attachment until smooth. Slowly add sugar and mix for 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and beat until creamy. Add flour and salt in 1/2 cup increments and mix until dough forms together into a ball. Remove from mixer, divide in half and place each half into plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Working with one half portion at a time, roll out onto counter to 1/4 -1/2 inch thickness. Cut with favorite cookie cutters and bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees. Decorate when cooled.