cookie exchange 2014

Torri and I hosted our third annual cookie exchange in early December, and it was a success! Each year we learn a little more about what it takes to host a cookie exchange and make things work well. We grew our number of participants significantly this year, and we loved having our friends join us to kick off the Christmas season! 

A few of our friends stepped in to help quite a bit as we were overwhelmed with cookies this year--so many to label and cut up for samples. We definitely met our goal to grow our cookie exchange! 

Mom's friend Cathy won best tasting cookie, with her Swedish almond cookies (below), and my friend Kristin won prettiest cookie, with her spritz cookies. I don't even have a picture of hers! We always get wrapped up with hosting and forget to take pictures. 

I'm so thankful for our good friends here, and I enjoyed getting to see so many of them in one place. I feel so loved by my friends who take time from their busy December to bake cookies and come to our party. Even though I will be married and moved away by next Christmas, and Torri will have a baby, we are going to do our best to keep this tradition alive! 

Christmas memory

A few weeks ago, I heard from the folks at Patience Brewster, who asked me to share a holiday memory here on my blog. Check out their website for Christmas ornaments, framed art, stationery, linens, and more.

The photo I chose is one of my brother, me, and my dad while waiting to watch the Raleigh Christmas parade. We would get a fast food breakfast, a rare treat (you can see the Hardee's coffee cup in dad's hand), then head downtown for the Christmas parade. I remember it always being sooo cold while we sat and watched the parade. When we were tiny, our parents would tow us in a wagon, and we wrapped up with blankets. 

What is one of your favorite Christmas traditions or memories? 

Christmas sweet potatoes

I made sweet potato casserole (recipe) for Christmas dinner. 

My dad's friend grew these sweet potatoes. I used the small ones for the casserole and saved the bigger, prettier ones to bake whole later.

Here, my sweet potatoes are plated with Boston butt cooked by my dad's friend in Salisbury and green bean bundles that my mom made.

We had a delicious Christmas dinner that felt like Thanksgiving part two. Well, actually, part three--I wish I had a picture of my plate from our gathering on Christmas eve!

What did your family eat on Christmas?

waiting

As I mentioned before, my small group went through this Advent study together through the season this year. The lessons that stood out to me most were those from week 1 and week 5, lessons about waiting. Israel waited for the Messiah, and we are still waiting for his second coming.

We talked through some things each of us is hoping for in her life, but the true promises from God's Word that we wait for come down to waiting on Heaven. If you are a child of God, you wait for Him to come back to earth and you wait for eternity with Him.

In our waiting, we must remember that God's timing is not like our timing, and we ought to live holy and godly lives (2 Peter 3).

I wait for my Savior at Christmas, and I wait every day for his return, for the fullness of the glory of God both in heaven and here on earth. I look forward to my heavenly body in times of pain and sickness. I long for eternity, knowing Him fully and seeing what I know now by faith. More immediately, I want to see his glory in life's little moments: realizing I've finally forgiven what I could only let go with his help, being loved when I don't deserve it, seeing friends healed, beholding his magnificent creation, opportunities to share the gospel, divine connections with others, deep and abiding love that only comes from God.

What are you waiting for?

Charlotte Christmas party

I went to Charlotte this weekend to visit my friends and to attend their Christmas party. It was wonderful to spend time with Lindsay and Tom! I enjoyed seeing their/our old friends again and meeting their new friends.  

They put a lot of time into planning the party and preparing all of the food. Everything was great!

I used a special mold to make a Christmas ice ring. Can you see the Christmas tree on the top?

I was happy to see this button tree that I made them last year on display. Their real tree was beautiful, too!

Do you host or do you have a friend who hosts a Christmas party each year? What are your December traditions?

Second Annual Cookie Exchange

My sister in law and I hosted our second annual cookie exchange last weekend.  We enjoyed seeing and tasting everyone's cookies, and we were pleased with the variety of cookies.  Can you guess which won prettiest cookie?  Even tougher, can you guess which was tastiest?  

Anyone want to come over for cookies?  We hope that our friends will have plenty of cookies to share throughout the Christmas season and will come back with new recipes next year!

citrus cookies

My sister in law and I started a tradition last year.  We host a cookie exchange in early December, and we ask that each person makes a different recipe each year.  At the party, we give prizes for the best tasting cookie, prettiest cookie, and best all around cookie (most votes in both categories combined).  I found this recipe for citrus cookies from Martha Stewart, and I hoped they would be a contender for prettiest cookie.  

I baked my cookies on Saturday morning, so I had to pause to make waffles and bacon.  I mixed in cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.  Is anyone going to Vermont soon?  I used up the Vermont maple syrup that my parents brought back for me from their trip this summer.

Back to the cookies.

I made half of the dough lemon flavored and the other half orange flavored.  Always read the comments on recipes!  That's where I got the idea to do half and half; I had oranges on hand and had purchased yellow and orange sprinkles, so all I needed was a lemon.  Fortunately, mom texted me while she was at Target, and she brought me a lemon.  

My dad is a fantastic problem solver.  When I realized I was already halfway through the process and hadn't found a thread spool like I needed, I asked him what I should use instead.  He suggested an apple corer/slicer.  It made nice marks on my cookies, but the indentations weren't quite wide enough to hold sprinkles.

The thread spool my mom found worked better with the sprinkles.

I didn't get any votes for best tasting or prettiest, but I would still try this recipe again.  Both types had nice flavor and with a little more practice, I think I could make them pretty.

What's your favorite cookie recipe?