Christmas, cookies, and holiday cheer!

Can you believe Christmas is a few days away?  I mean how did that happen?  I feel like I just put up the Christmas tree and decorated the house.  I swear the older I get the faster the time goes!  This, however, is not a post about life passing you by, it’s about an annual tradition that is one of my favorites during the holiday season. 

Nearly 7 years ago I hosted my very first Christmas Cookie Exchange.  It started out with about a dozen ladies and has steadily grew in size ( more ladies and many more cookies) as the years went by.  The pretense is simple, either bring homemade cookies or bake them at the party, enjoy some food, and have a glass of wine or two.  I always make two chilis, one white chicken chili and a traditional red chili made vegan (recipes to follow in another post!)  The baking part always seems to work out well because half of the ladies would bring cookies ready made while the other half baked.  One point to mention, I have noticed as each year goes by more people bring pre-baked cookies so they can enjoy each other’s company, eat, and (of course) drink wine.  Really is it any surprise that this cookie party is just an excuse to get together during the holidays (sans men) and drink wine?  If you’ve been reading my blog or have known me for like 10 minutes this comes as no shock to you. 

I just hosted the exchange last Saturday and we had over 900 cookies (yes over 900!) spread out around the kitchen counters on every inch of available surface you could find.  Not only where there so many cookies, but not one person brought the same thing; I have no idea how that happened!  There were oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, peanut butter, shortbread, haystacks, brownie bars (not technically cookies, but no one complained), white macadamia, cranberry white chocolate, powder sugar- coated crescents, cranberry pistachio shortbread, chocolate fudge, sugar free, gluten free, vegan, paleo….oh the list goes on and on and on.  The cookies did have one thing in common though, they were all delicious and  baked with love. 

When the dust (or in this case the flour) settled and the smoked cleared I was still left with hundreds of cookies.  I had two choices 1. Leave those delicious devils in my house and gain an extra ten pounds over the next two weeks or 2. Share them with friends, co-workers, and family.  I chose the latter in a means to stave off those extra lbs. #holidayproblems

Another more recent tradition was making ornaments for all the ladies.  The hubs loves working with wood so about three years ago he decided to rip the branches off our Christmas tree (once we took it down for the year) and save the trunk for a future project.  Well I guess I’m not the only one who peruses Pinterest because he came up with an idea of making ornaments from last year’s dried tree trunk.   He cut rounds from the trunk and drilled a hole at the top for the twine to hang the ornaments on the tree.  I made generic ornaments last year, but this year I decided to personalize them with each person’s name on the front and “Christmas Cookie Party 2018″ on the back.  It was such a fun project for me and I worked on a few ornaments each night.  Not only was the end result a one of a kind piece, but it really put me in such a relaxed mood drawing names and the design (I’m sure the glass of wine I had while doodling helped too).   

I am so happy to report the party was another wine soaked celebration success! Everyone went home with heaping plates of cookies, full tummies, slightly tipsy heads, and a new Christmas ornament. I’m in the process of getting the cookie recipes so stand by for another post with all the goodness of these sweet treats! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas filled with good (and sweet) cheer!