Showing posts with label Cookie parties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cookie parties. Show all posts

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Hayley's Fifth Annual Cookie and Gift Exchange

Hayley's fifth annual Cookie and Ornament Exchange was on the 18th.  It was another fun event for the girls.  Twelve girls arrived bearing four dozen delicious cookies each.  I'm always impressed with their creativity!  The girls always start the party off with a quick game of Left, Right, Center... this year we didn't have quarters so they played with M&M's.  :)  They move right onto the gift exchange and then onto tasting and voting on their favorite cookies.  Fun times again this year!

Traditional LRC game.
Becky's darling cookies

Sarah called these 'Reindeer Droppings'

McKenna's delicious peanut-buttery cookie

Hailey made cute reindeer and some coconut snowballs.

Savannah made a different version of her cute reindeer.

Maddy A. made some supercute cookie pops.

Maddy P. made yummy Oreo Truffles.

Gabi made Harry Potter sugar cookies.  They were darling... she made all of the characters... Dobby, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Snape, Voldemort, Dumbledore, Sirius Black, etc.!  Gabi's cookies were voted (unanimously) as 'Most Creative'.

Sarah checking out Jordan's gift during the exchange.
Savannah is super excited about her gift!

Abby, Maddy & Hailey

Becky showing off her gift.

Maddy A. was hoping someone would steal her gift!

Gabi, McKenna, & Becky

Savannah & Maureen

Hayley and Mari modeling their cute gifts!

Mari won AGAIN! for 'Favorite Cookie' and Gabi won for 'Most Creative'.

Group shot of the girlies!

Crazy shot of the girlies!
  

Monday, December 12, 2011

14th Annual Christmas Cookie Exchange Party

Well, it was another fun Cookie and Ornament Exchange!  I look forward to each year and I can't believe I've been doing this for fourteen years!  And, I would say that at least half of the ladies have been coming since the very first one... so cool!  Anyway, good friends, yummy cookies, lots to eat and supercute ornaments helped make it another fun event.  
Joleen, Ellen, and Gina

Tammy & Darlene

Lisa and Staci

Sherry, Jane, and Carmen

Kathy, Tammy, and Stephanie

Stacey, Shannon, & Megan

Krista opening up her own ornament exchange!

Gina won Favorite Cookie for the second year in a row with her Salted Caramel Butter Bars!

The fun part... collecting all those beautiful and delicious cookies!


Ellen's Coconut Meringues

Staci's darling Peppermint Meringues with Chocolate Ganache

Shannon and Megan's Butterfinger Candies... the ingredients for these yummies is melted Candy Corn mixed with Peanut Butter!  They were outstanding and totally tasted like a butterfinger!
The lovely baking ladies of 2011!

The crazy, goofy baking ladies of 2011!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

13th Annual Cookie & Ornament Exchange

I can't believe I've hosted an annual cookie exchange for thirteen years now!  I started it the year Hayley was born and for the most part the same friends have been coming back every year.  I also love to include at least one new friend every year (that was you Sherry!).  Sometimes this event can cause me a little stress and I never truly feel prepared for it, but every year after the party is over I'm always so glad that I've done it again... it's such a fun tradition and for me it marks the start of our Christmas Season.  Everyone bakes seven dozen cookies to share with each other and, wow, we had some delicious ones again this year. 


Here's a shot of the cookie table.



The talented and crafty Miss Megan made me my adorable chicken wire Christmas crown!


It was quite an agressive ornament exhange.  There was a lot of stealing this year!



Me, Lisa, Anna, and Jane taking a break after sampling all of the delicious cookies.



Megan, Tammy, Shannon, Stephanie, and Kathy... the old Des Moines neighbors.



I made a Spiced Molasses Ginger Cookie that I had gotten out of a Bon Appetit magazine years ago. They didn't win, but they did get some votes! Classic Christmas cookie.



Kathy made a gorgeous and delicious Key Lime White Chocolate Cookie.




Lisa made The Original Peppermint Blossoms... yummy and cute!




Darlene's healthy anti-oxidant loaded Dark Cocoa Kisses.



Stephanie's super good Carmelita's.




Mrs. Potter didn't have time to bake this year, so her contribution were the Keebler Iced Animal Crackers.
 

And the winning cookie this year is..... Gina's Chocolate Mudslide Cookies!



Tammy is our official 'vote counter' every year...

Here's the happy winner with her prize!

 

Group shot of everyone with their supercute ornaments!
 
Thanks for coming everyone!  Merry Christmas!
Want to check out the photos from last year's Cookie Party?  Click here.