On Saturday I hosted a cookie and tree trimming party. The day before I’d taken off work to prepare for the party, but that night we went out for Dallas’s birthday. We drank too much at the Whistler and stayed out til midnight. I was feeling it a bit in the morning, but it was not nearly as bad as last year. Still, I’m starting to think I can’t host this party NOT hung over!

Many of my friends and family came over and each brought a few dozen cookies. We laid all of the cookies out and sampled them over the course of a few hours. This year we had a lot of cookie party first timers, which was fun. In general there were more people than usual. In previous years people have been really busy, but this year the stars all lined up and we had a great turn out.

Cory, Jen, Tommy, Eleanor

Cory, Mary, Jen, Tommy

Aunty Laura, Kristin, Amy, Eleanor

To counter-balance all the sweets, I also served a Wisconsin cheese plate, a mix of crackers and breadsticks, chopped veggies for dipping, some Lit’l Smokies, and 3 dips: crack onion dip, olive parsley pesto spread, and roasted red pepper and cannellini bean dip. Naoko also made some queso that was really addictive when paired with potato chips! To drink we had hot apple cider (spiked or not) which I had Steph in charge of, using Julene’s Chicagoist recipe.

Kate and Natalie (due any day now!)

Eleanor, Amy

Mom & Eleanor

Laura, Amanda, Margo

I do a lot of shopping for the party after Christmas and just store it in a box for the next year. This year when I opened the box I’d purchased two different gifts for some reason… so I was able to give away a door prize as well as a best cookie prize. My mom got everyone to put their names in a bag. Aunty Gail was standing by me as I drew a name. I asked her if she was feeling lucky, then I looked down and I was holding her name in my hand! So weird!! Tommy helped her open her gift.

Tommy

Aunty Gail

We passed time talking and eating. This year we had a lot of kids at the party, which was fun. Steph and Jess were there, of course. Kelly brought Tessa again, she and Jess are such great pals. Quinn and Tommy came this year. They’ve met one time before and ran around together and with Jess and Tessa. Kenji didn’t run around too much, since he’s just turned one year old this past weekend. And then there are the little babies! I finally got to meet Margo, and Jill brought Halle as well. They’re only a week apart in age!

Jessica

Margo

Halle

Since there were so many people and cookies, today has been a bit of an exercise in matching the cookie with the recipe with the person. This may be slightly off, but here’s a pretty complete list of all the treats we sampled:

• Toffee Chocolate Walnut Bar (Caroline)
• Swedish Oatmeal Cookie (Kristin)
• Peanut Butter Truffle (Cory)
• Mint Chocolate Wafer Cookie (Jen)
• Walnut Thumbprints with Pumpkin Apricot Marmalade (Joanna)
• White Chocolate Peanut Butter Crispy Balls (Kate)
• Deliciously Dandy Ding Dongs (Natalie)
• Gingerbread Spice Cookies (Cinnamon)
• Mint Cookie Gems (Mary)
• Chocolate Crispy Cookies (Gail)
• Melting Moments (Jill)
• Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (Katrina and Narni)
• Triple Chip Peanut Butter Cookies (Eleanor)
• Godiva Liqueur Chocolate Chip Cookie and Cream Tart (Amy)
• Peanut Butter Blossoms (Laura)
• Chocolate Chip Cookies (Glenna)
• Outrageous Brownies (Amanda)
• Snickerdoodles (Amanda)
• Chocolate Truffles with Hawaiian Sea Salt (Rachelle)
• Red Velvet Bon Bons (Rachelle)
• 3 Truffles, Spiked with Baileys, Coffee and Raspberry (Kelly)
• Pebber Nodder – Danish Christmas Cookie (Molly?)
• Caramel Pecan Bars (Molly?)
• Orange Chocolate Cookie (Naoko)
• Chocolate Almond Cookie (Naoko)
• Strawberry Cookie (Naoko)

As you can see, everyone stepped their game up this year. Everything was so delicious!! Since no one can ever pick one favorite, I handed out cards to get everyone to say what their top 3 cookies were. Steph and I tallied up the votes by giving a 1st place vote 3 points, a 2nd place vote 2 points and a 3rd place vote 1 point.

Rachelle, Steph

Tallying Votes

The results? There was a 3rd place tie between Jen’s Mint Chocolate Wafer Cookie and Cory’s Peanut Butter Truffle. In second place was Kristin’s Swedish Oatmeal Cookies. First place was a surprise to me. I could see what cookie won but I had no idea who made it! Surprise! It was Caroline! She won a Christmas hotpad and oven mitt as well as my all time favorite cookie book, Martha Stewart’s Cookies.

Caroline is crowned the winner!

I think my cookie party was a success. It seemed like everyone had a great time. I’m already looking forward to next year’s party!

• 2nd Annual Cookie and Tree Trimming Party
• 1st Annual Cookie and Tree Trimming Party

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