Last night I hosted my first cookie exchange. I'm surprised it's taken me this long to do it, since growing up my mom hosted one every year. I have many many memories of women coming over and hanging out with cookies galore while I went in out of the kitchen to steal samples while watching some Christmas cartoon like "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" or "A Charlie Brown Christmas".
Anyway, this was the year! I figured a blogger cookie exchange was the perfect combination. People who love food, food that is fun to photograph, and lots of Christmas cheer!
Kelly,
Jen, and
Katie came a little early to help me set up.
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| Kelly is the pomegranate master! |
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I made heavy appetizers to go with the abundance of cookies.
On the menu:
- pitas with pesto and cheese
- crostini with diced artichoke hearts, roasted red pepper, and goat cheese
- mozzarella, tomato, and basil on tooth picks
- guacamole and fresh salsa with two kinds of tortilla chips
- hummus with veggies
- French bread with bruschetta dip
- Jen's nut pate with pita chips and veggies
- Katie's vegetarian chili
- A couple bottles of red wine
- pomegranate martinis (with Pom aerials!)
- Mulled cider
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| My plate (sideways!) |
We munched on apps while conversation flowed, and the
Christmas play list played. Then it was time for the main event! The cookie madness! If you are wondering how we did my "exchange", I kept it casual. I tried not to mandate that everyone HAD to bring a certain amount of cookies, but if they needed a ball park number about 3-4 dozen would be a good amount.
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| Jen's (Peanut Butter Runner) Biscotti |
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| Jen's (PB Runner) shortbread peppermint bark |
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| Cindi's GIANT chocolate chip (with brownie inside) cookies |
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| Kelly's gingersnaps |
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| Andrea's pumpkin cookies (I think!?) |
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| Jen's (runnerstrials) cranberry oatmeal cookies |
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| My orange chocolate pinwheels and almond candy canes. |
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| Katie's salted choco-caramel cookies |
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| Katie's Lemon Cornmeal cookies |
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| Caitlin's thumbprint cookies |
Somehow I missed getting pictures of Jessie's coconut cream cookies and Linday's fudge, but I assure you, they were totally delicious!
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| Caitlin and Clyde have a special relationship... |
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| This is a game they like to play :) |
The crew!
I can't believe I waited this long to host a cookie party! It was a blast and I think we all had a great time :)
Do you host or go to cookie exchange parties?
12 comments:
Brittney - thank you so much for hosting us all last night. I loved the cookie swap and all of the food was delicious. Love that you featured what everyone brought. It was all so yummy!
What a great community you ladies have going in Charlotte.
Your house looks beautiful, and the food looks amazing. Glad y'all had a great time!
I'm pretty sure I would have eaten at least 1 of each cookie :) They all looked amazing. It definitely looks like everyone had a great time.... including Clyde!
Clyde is yummy!
Great of you to host this! I might try it someday! Looks like you did a great job!
Wow this looks like such a fun evening and the food looks delish. What a great idea to host a cookie exchange. I love the appetizers and all the cookie pictures, yummm.
Looks like a fun time! I wish I could have been there!!
~Lori
Looks like your 1st cookie exchange was a great success! The food and the cookies looked awesome! How fun!
Haha! Yup they were pumpkin. Iced pumpkin cookies!
That looked like such a fun holiday party. I went to my first Christmas cookie exchange party last night. What a fabulous idea.
Sooooo much fun! I think I *still* have a sugar buzz. Thanks for such a great party :) The Clyde & Caitlin photo is cracking me up!
Hi hun! I'm a new follower, a fan of Lindsey M (Designer WIfe)'s blog - I love food photos! The blogger cookie party is a great idea :) I recently attended my "very first" blogger meet up in Columbus OH at the Cheesecake factory, and wish I would have taken pics of everyone's dessert now!
The candy cane and pinwheel cookies were gorgeous!
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