Cookies from Christmas Past

Dear Shayne,

I will be attending an amazing Christmas Cookie Exchange party in a few weeks. I missed it last year, but I was just poking around and found photos of my cookies from two years ago. The cookies were good -- oatmeal cookies with Grape-nuts (Mmm! Crunchy!) and dried cranberries (Mmm! Tangy!)

But I was especially pleased with my packaging:


Little snowflake printed bags with a ribbon tying a handmade gingerbread cookie button! There were gingerbread boys:


And gingerbread girls:


This exchange is a competition -- you bring enough for everyone to taste and vote on. You also put together parcels of 3 cookies each for everyone to take home. This event is a well-oiled machine and there are some hard-core competitors (yeah, I'm way out of my league.)

The one thing I thought I had going for me the last time was in the "Best Presentation" category, so I made these little cookie bags (with buttons!) Unfortunately, I misunderstood the category entirely -- it was actually for the presentation of the baked goods only. Oops. My cute little bags got tucked away immediately to make room for the cookie-tasting portions.

Whoops! But I was still pretty pleased with them.


This year, I think I'll bring my Aunt Rody's "Radio Butter" cookies (named so because her mother originally heard the recipe on the radio -- love that!) They're always a hit and I also love them. I'm probably going to go down in Cookie History as The Girl Who Only Makes That One Kind of Cookie and they probably won't win against the extravagant cookies that show up at this party, but I'll certainly enjoy them. :)

love,
kelly

PS -- If the oatmeal/Grape-nut/cranberry cookies sound good to you, you can find the recipe here. They are awesome for breakfast!