Cookies!

Back when Ryan was a resident in general surgery at Lehigh Valley Hospital, I fell into a circle of "wives" that all got together and had playdates, etc etc. Those girls introduced me to the concept of a Christmas Cookie Exchange and it was glorious.

If you are unfamiliar, basically everyone brings a different type of cookie, and then each person goes home with some of each kind of cookie. It's amazing. Ryan was always particularly fond of Rachel Bechtel's Gingerbread. Rachel, if you're reading this, I make mine from scratch each year and always hear: "they're good, but not Rachel good."

Sigh.

Anyway my last Xmas in PA (sheesh we're talking like 2012), my friend from work Caitlin and I decided to jointly host one at my house (which also involves the story of how I iced the sugar cookies and put them on the back deck to let the icing dry/harden...Mason snuck out behind me and I didn't notice. It was 30 degrees, and I was searching the house frantically for him, until I heard a quiet knocking on the patio door (the blinds were closed), and found Mason outside in his footie jammies eating all my effing cookies!!! Funny now, but wasn't when I couldn't find him.)

Not a photo from the actual incident, but he still swiped this cookie off the table while I was setting up for that party.

Anyway the following year was the year I had gone home to NY because my dad was sick, so our first Xmas in TX I didn't get to do it. 

However, I did get to make gingerbread men with Char and the boys for Xmas eve while we were home!

So this year I made sure I hosted one!

Sarah suggested we have a cocktail exchange, but since I had planned it for 2pm I had to stick with cookies ;)

I opted to make my "HNL baking contest" award-winning snickerdoodle bars.

Partly because I'm lazy and unoriginal, and partly because they're always a hit.

We had our friends over, got to have a great visit with everyone, and I set up a cookie decorating station for the kids. There were yummy mimosas, and all the cookies were divine.

These photos were all taken before the massive amount of cookies arrived and were completely covering the table!

There was no room on the table once the goodies started pouring in!

Thank you ladies, for drinking mimosas with me and eating enough cookies to put ourselves into sugar comas.

XOXO