Hi Robin,
I hosted my first cookie exchange on Friday, December 5th at 6:30pm through
my Mom's group, Forever Fun. We had 14 ladies and had the Best time ever..
Your site really inspired me. I did the invite through our group's site on
meetup.com and asked everyone to list the cookie they were bringing as well
as email me the recipe. Each participant brought 6 dozen homemade cookies.
We had contests for Best Presentation of Cookies and Most Festive Attire.
We also played the Don't say Cookie game. I presented each lady with a necklace
that was a little gold bell on the end of a black sash along with one candy
cane to hang on the end. Every time someone would say cookie, you could take
theirs away and add to your necklace. The prizes were a Gingerbread apron
for the Most Festive Attire, A Santa Cookie Jar for the Best Presentation
and a Gingerbread stocking full of gingerbread body lotion and gel for the
candy cane contest. I also had some chocolates I believe for the runner ups...
I served appetizers along with mulling cider and had a champagne fountain,
which was fun! Some people even brought some fun appetizers as well. We had
a Great time and I really enjoyed hearing everyone's Holiday Traditions from
their youth and what they do now. You'll see the picture of us all sitting
in a circle sharing, that was really interesting and a Great way to get to
know each other.. We had the Most Festive Attire introduce each cookie, which
I had made name tags for each one with the bakers name underneath. It really
was Wonderful and such a Great tradition to continue, everyone is already
talking about next year..
Oh, and I made recipe books that I handed out to each lady.. I just used
red paper for the cover and white on the inside.. I folded a 8x10 paper in
half and made it in to a booklet with one recipe per page and the list of
all the cookies and names on the back of the front cover. Also for the recipe
book, we had 2 gals that brought recipes that were family secrets so what
I did is just look it up on the web and find something similar and used that
for the recipe book.. For example the Nutmeg Logs, I found a similar recipe,
sent it to the baker for approval and then used that.. it worked well.
I sent it over to Kinkos to be copied and bound. As a favor they were handed
little clear gingerbread bags with the recipe book and I believe some chocolates
along with one of those English Crackers that you pop open with goodies inside..
I'm so glad I did the party and it was such a Great incentive to get my house
ready for the holidays early. Hopefully this will be a long standing tradition
in the Jones Home..
Thanks Robin for the inspiration. Until next year ~
Patti
(I'm the blonde one in the group photo, 3rd one from the right in the back)
PS.. I had so many photos to post but tried to include the best but you can
see them also on my facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2008632&id=1463184986 |
