Hi Robin!

Here are pix of my first ever cookie exchange last December. We had 14 ladies here and had a really good time. Since I invited friends from different parts of my life and many of them didn’t know each other we did a little ice breaker we called my new best friend.

I had made name tags for each guest and put them into a basket once everyone arrived. Then each guest drew a name tag and had to find the person to whom the tag belonged, learn a few things about them; then introduce each other and share what she learned about her new best friend. With our less-than-perfect memories, it was hysterical!

You’ll see blessing rings in a couple of the pix including one of the table with the cookies where I had them hanging from the chandelier. I had made a blessing ring for each guest and had them all email their recipes to me. I formatted the recipes all alike, printed, folded and punched them and had them ready for the party.

Before we did the actual exchange I gave each guest the stack of her recipes, we went around and each of us told about our cookies. Then we passed our recipes around, so that everyone could put them on their blessing rings.

I had one of the ladies tell me just the other day that she loves her blessing ring because she knows just where to look to find her cookie recipes!

I learned a lot about hosting a cookie exchange in this process and will tweak the “rules” for this year!

Thanks so much for sharing your concept! I know 14 ladies who had a ball with it and enjoyed a bunch of cookies!

Sandy Kelley-Jones, Pearland, TX