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C is for Cookie

Well, Monday was the cookie swap. And it was once again, fantastic, wonderful, delightful and the perfect way to kick off the Christmas season. My sistah, Lisa, invites ten ladies and we each bring 12 dozen packaged-for-delivery cookies. The morning begins with breakfast while sharing our cookie story. Usually, at least one person will have had a minor catastrophe while trying to make her cookies and this always makes for good story telling. Prizes are given for the best stories. This year the two prizes went to Deb who made Krumkaka for all of us using a krumkaka iron over her stovetop, one at a time. She won for her patience and stamina! And another prize went to Jill who made cookies that went in the oven at 400, and then the oven is turned off while the cookies take shape for the next SIX HOURS! Her prize was obviously given, again, for the time she put into her cookie. Sara was definitely in the running, since she drove from Denver and arrived home at 4 am the morning of the swap. Thankfully her cookies were in the freezer, and she looked really good for four hours of sleep!

Lisa decorates the house beautifully, with plates and name cards set out for each of us to display our cookies. This leads to a morning full of sampling. Amazing. The morning progresses with games and basically, there is just a lot of laughter that follows. We played one game where we had to guess the price of 13 different cookie ingredients and then add up how off our price guesses were. I was off by $18.78. I was the biggest looser. :)


This was Lisa's fifth year hosting the cookie swap and each year a group picture is taken for our recipe book that holds everyone's cookie recipe with a picture of each cookie. It's quite the organized and well executed event. Thanks Lisa for another morning that far surpasses Disney World for me.

5 comments:

Elsa said...

Hi Becca! I just realized you moved your blog. What terrific entries you have here! I love that you get together with your friends to bake cookies and even make a book. Awesome!

Beth said...

LISA IS AMAZING! YES I'M SHOUTING THAT IN MY COMMENTS! I CAN NEVER ASPIRE TO HER FABULOUS CREATIVE HOMEMAKING AND PARTY-HOSTING ABILITIES, BUT IT IS FUN TO READ HOW AWESOME SHE IS NEVERTHELESS!!!! :)

Marlene said...

Today I delivered a large basket which contained a dozen of each of these cookies to The Dwelling Place, a faith based home for abused women and their children, courtesy of you wonderful girls!!
The pictures are beautiful. My daughters in law and their friends are so talented and kind hearted!

Rory said...

Lisa's Cookie Swap is fast becoming my favorite holiday.

Lisa Groves said...

Bec,I love the shots of all the stuff I never thought of..like the crumb cake! That is a yummy memory. Thank you! I loved everything about the morning. This years cookie selection was beautiful! The gingersnaps were awesome. The cookie kicks in the 'snap" just after you finish that last bite. Excellent spices! I think we all learned something that morning. Most importantly, if it doesn't say "packed brown sugar"...DON"T PACK IT!