Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

These soft, delicately spiced pumpkin snickerdoodles are a sweet way to welcome fall. This recipe is a great one to make with kids, who can roll the dough into balls and then in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

With the holidays quickly approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about family and traditions. I always find myself feeling a little contemplative this time of year, but I feel it more since becoming a parent. Celebrating holidays without family has been our normal the past few years. I’m okay with that. I can’t help but wonder, though, if our little girl will eventually feel like she’s lacking something. Every time Eric or I have talked to our sisters recently, she says, with this adorably hopeful voice, “Maybe I see her soon.” It kind of breaks my heart.

She won’t have memories of big Thanksgiving or Christmas meals with a bunch of family. She will, however, have memories of our own holiday traditions (like baking cookies together and making waffles for Christmas morning breakfast) and celebrating with our friends. Hopefully that will be enough.

One thing that always gets me in the mood for the holiday season is baking, and nothing cheers me up like baking with my girl. We got in the kitchen yesterday morning and made these cookies. Her response when I asked her if she wanted to make cookies was, “I do my byself!” Yep, that’s my girl. She loved counting the scoops of flour, whisking the dry ingredients, and turning on the mixer. She’s obviously enjoyed eating the cookies, too.

I thought I didn’t like snickerdoodles until my then-new neighbor, Kelli, brought us a plate shortly after we moved into our house. They were so good and made me wonder why I never liked them before. This version has the added benefit of having pumpkin, making it perfect for this time of year. These are soft, delicately spiced and so, so good.