Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers young and old out there! Mothers are such an important part of our lives, whether they've been there for us or not. They are the very first people that we are introduced to when we come out of the womb, and they might be the most influential part of how we turn out as people. I am saying "Happy Mother's Day" to my own amazing mom as well as my new mother-in-law today. It's amazing when you join your life with another person's and you're able to see just how much you are like your own mother and how much your partner's mother has made them who they are.

In honor of a holiday, I am going to take the chance to introduce you to a wonderful book that I have fallen in love with called "Holiday Treats." This book is a compilation created by several different authors who have joined forces to bring us a rounded perspective that covers the holidays that most homes in America celebrate.

The book starts out with Halloween and ends with summer holidays and birthdays, covering in between a variety of holidays including Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, and a variety of Jewish holidays in a format that is informative and fun. Each section is filled with creative recipes, crafting, games, and helpful tips that are sure to make it easy to create traditions in your family that your children will remember for years to come. It's a valuable resource for moms and grandmoms to look to, if only for a reference or to spark ideas for other crafts and creative recipes.

These pages are filled with colorful pictures and step-by-step instructions that often include tips for when children can help out and when adult supervision is recommended. The instructions are easy to read and often the authors use anecdotes from their own experiences to guide you as you attempt to start your own traditions.

The crafts presented in the book range in difficulty from easy-peasy to mildly advanced *(these are my personal ratings and are not contained in the book), but most of the time the crafts are kid-friendly and just as fun to make as they are pretty to look at. The recipes are generally simple and elegant, with most of the focus being on presentation.

I highly recommend this book, but if I had any complaints about it, it would be that it seems to focus only on Judeo-Christian and Jewish holidays and I would have appreciated a few holidays from other culturally significant backgrounds such as Chinese New Year or Cinco De Mayo. A significant portion of the book is dedicated to Jewish holidays, which is wonderful, but it might have been nice to see a little more cultural balance in the book.