Cookie Exchange

This year, Eugene and I added something different to our annual bakefest. We invited some of our friends to exchange cookies at our house. We started our baking last week, over Thanksgiving weekend. We asked the participants to send us their recipes ahead of time so we could print them out on cards. We then mounted those cards on colored backings and stamped them with a gingerbread cookie stamp. We prepared over 100 of these cards last night, along with doing laundry and cleaning. Actually, I did some of that earlier yesterday, since I was home with Alex. (He woke up with a fever, and he had vomited in the crib. I brought him to Urgent Care, and he had an ear infection. Surprise, surprise.) We were but late, but Alex woke up early today. Eugene got up with him. Although Alex is taking antibiotics, it's going to take a few doses before he gets better. In the meantime, he had a fussy day and didn't even want to nap. We did get him to nap briefly in the car, but every time we tried to move him into his crib, he woke up. We still had to finish cleaning, shop, decorate, and cook some hot food. Alex clung to Eugene more than he did to me, so we divided the tasks accordingly.

We had about twenty people over for the cookie exchange, since people brought their husbands and children. Another friend of ours also sent in some cookies. It took a while for the party to get started, and Alex was very cranky and kept crying/screaming. But I think people had a good time anyway. There were all types of cookies--shortbread, sugar cookies, buckeyes/snowdrops, and a decadent cookie topped with a Recees (sp?) Pieces. I was too busy to take pictures, sorry. We wound up with plenty of extra cookies left over. As for Alex, we finally got him to sleep early. I just hope he doesn't get up early too!