Decorating Easter Cookies

I have made Easter cookies for about 23 years only taking off a few years in college. My mom started the tradition and I started helping when I was a little girl and took over the decorating when I was in my early teens. It is a task that requires a lot of time and patience. My mom & I used to make everyone in our extended family a egg cookie with their name on it. That resulted in about 60-70 cookies!! When I was younger it was almost a full day job just to ice them. Now I do only a few egg cookies with names and a lot of spring shapes but it still takes about 4 hours. This year I had a little help both kids are getting better at squeezing icing--which takes some hand strength. We made some really cute little chicks this year. 4/3/10