Hi Robin,

On December 14, 2008 I hosted my very first Holiday Cookie Exchange and it was a hit!

I invited family, friends, and neighbors from just down the road up to two hours away and 18 people attended the party. I invited most everyone via Evite as it saved on the cost of a stamp as well as allowing people to share what cookies they were bringing so others could see the responses and we could avoid duplicates.

In addition, I asked everyone to email their recipes and I created a recipe book for everyone to take home with them at the end of the day.

We began with everyone arriving with their cookies and setting them up in the sunroom. I was so impressed by the presentation of the cookies! Hot and cold hors d'oeuvres and Holiday Punch were served and the afternoon continued with games that were gathered from your website.

They included Holiday Trivia, creating as many words as you can from "Cookie Exchange", and a scavenger hunt by finding items located in your purse. My mother's gentleman friend also attend (the only man there) and was notified by Evite that the scavenger hunt would be taking place. He didn't want to be left out so he had my mother help him "stuff a purse" with items to participate. He came in second place!!

Everyone had more fun watching him check his list against the items in his purse. One of the pictures reflects his participation. Prizes were placed in holiday bags under the Christmas tree and included ornaments, kitchen towels, potpourri, holiday hot pads, and even a lenox santa claus.

We exchanged cookies at the end of the afternoon. My guests were already planning on what cookies they were going to bring next years party and I'm looking forward to planning the next cookie exchange!!

Christy Bomba