Cookie Exchange

I have only been to one cookie exchange before (thanks Corey!), but it was definitely something I wanted to host. Last year the holidaze were upon us before I thought to plan one and then everyone's schedule was too crazy busy to fit one in. This year I wanted to get it on everyone's calendar before Thanksgiving when everyone's schedules go nuts through the end of the year. We planned it for the Sunday before Thanksgiving and I had 7 people RSVP with a commitment to baking cookies. All 7 showed up so there were PLENTY of cookies to pass around. Everyone brought a half a dozen per person with another half dozen to share/sample. So that also meant you were taking HOME that many cookies. Everyone that committed to making cookies showed up and arrived with quite the assortment.

I had every intention of baking early. Then we had a power outage Friday night that zapped all motivation once the lights finally came back on. A work party at Molly's school on Saturday plus forgetting to put out the butter pushed my baking until Sunday morning. Yes, THE day of the actual cookie exchange. I had wanted to bake a new recipe, but I lost confidence once I realized each batch would only make a dozen cookies (actually around 15). So I made two batches of the Lemon Butter Cookies and then switched over to my old standby of Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies which yield almost 5 dozen cookies. So, people took home a few of the Lemon Butter cookies and 8-10 of the Reese's. (Note - The Lemon Butter Cookies turned out great and I will definitely be making them again soon).



Top left tin - Noel Nut Balls (Corey)
Top right tin - Ginger Cookies (family recipe, Corey)
Center tupperware - Mocha Slice Cookies (Amy)
Bottom right - Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies (me)
Holiday Bags - Vermont Maple Pecan Cookies (Lucille)
Bottom left tin - Rocky Road and Cranberry bark (Corey)



Left plate - Snowballs (Jenn)
Right plate - Lemon Butter Cookies (me)



Top left - Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies (Marissa)
Top right - Chocolate Mint Cookies (Tina)



MY goodie bag!

All in all it was resounding success! This is definitely something I plan to make a tradition out of.