The following is a guest post from Amy who blogs at Mom’s Toolbox.

I love cookies. And I love baking. And I love a good competition. Perhaps this is why I am still fired up from my friend Karen’s cookie exchange which was this past Sunday. (It’s either that or all the sugar I’ve ingested since then!)

For the past nine years Karen has invited just a few of us into her home for one of my most-anticipated events of the Christmas season. (Is it okay to admit that?)

Every year I begin thinking (plotting?) about the following year’s competition celebration, the day after the party. Really, I do. I think we all do. (I’m already thinking about next year even though I am still enjoying the treats from this year.)
So what does Karen do that is so special? Read on, my friends.

There are all sorts of cookie exchanges out there and they all serve some excellent purposes: getting some variety in your cookie collection (to give or just eat yourself/ share with your family), getting together with friends, flexing your creative baking muscle…

Karen’s exchange is all of that and more. Each year about six women take part in the exchange. Each woman bakes one dozen cookies per participating bakers, setting aside one dozen for sampling and the others packaged by the dozen with the recipe.
We snack on lunch or munchies:

and then dive into the cookies:

We each taste every cookie and then vote by secret ballot for our favorite tasting. And then we inspect the packaging and vote on our favorite in that area. Each winner receives a cute Christmas prize from Karen and we all go home with dozens of sweet treats, already packaged beautifully to give as gifts (or not).

We have made and tasted all sorts of cookies from the very decadent and difficult-to-make, to the no bake, roll ‘em up varieties. Through the years we have had simple, fruity, crunchy, chewy, chocolate-y, popular and unique. The only rule is no slice-and-bake and one year I pushed up against that rule pretty hard. (I had so much fund-raiser cookie dough in my freezer I had to do something with it. I doctored it up and then made sandwich cookies out of it.)

What amazes me though, aside from the delicious morsels I get to sample, is the creativity of this group in the packaging. One year we received miniature Christmas trees, complete with battery-operated lights. The cookies were the ornaments:  drop cookies each wrapped in green or red plastic wrap. That very same year another woman brought us all wreaths with the cookies individually wrapped hanging on the greenery. I’ve played the mom-card and packed cookies in containers with my children’s handprints. We’ve received red clay pots painted and transformed into snowmen. (Later we were called and instructed not to eat the cookies. The spray paint made the pots unsafe for food. Oops.) We’ve also received simple and elegant jars with beautiful ribbons and cookies accompanied with spatulas, kitchen towels and handmade Christmas aprons. This year one batch of cookies was packed simply and beautifully: in a long sleeve of waxed paper with red ribbons on each side, Tootsie-Roll style. It is always a treat to see what everyone will create, both in the cookie and the packaging.

Here we are with our cookies packaged:

A few years back Karen added a new dimension to the exchange: we now make cookie-inspired Christmas ornaments at the exchange to take home and decorate our tree, reminding us of the afternoon long after the cookies are gone.

Aside from the opportunity to really visit with friends I rarely see throughout the year, which is a tremendous blessing in itself, I love this exchange because it is simple, fun and everyone involved really participates. We all stop our hectic harried schedules to come up with a fantastic cookie we think our friends will enjoy and then we bake a ton of them. And share them. And then we get together to enjoy them and each other. And when we leave we have gifts to share with others. (Well, it’s supposed to work out that way. And every year I think I will give them away but then I get home and have another taste. And share one or two and then, well, the gifts aren’t so abundant. But it is a good idea and if you have more discipline than I do, it could really work out well for you.)

This year I shared a few of the cookies with my husband and kiddos and then decided to freeze the rest and serve them Christmas Day, when we are hosting extended family for dinner. That way, they’ll all get to enjoy a little of the cookie exchange I talk about year after year. And it’s one thing I know I’ll have done ahead of time, thanks to Karen.

Here’s the cookie recipe that won this year:

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Tiffany, the baker, said she wasn’t sure if she would go through all the effort again. But they were fantastic!

For more tried and true (and much easier to make) cookie recipes, check out the virtual cookie exchange at Mom’sToolbox.

PS: Did you notice the tiny person in the first cookie photo? That’s our Flat Tam. The real Tam couldn’t make the exchange this year because she now lives in a different state. So we included her a la Flat Stanley anyhow. It just wouldn’t have been the same without her.

Amy, sister to the blogosphere’s husband of the year and sister-in-law to one of the original 3 Moms of Happy to be at Home, shares insights from her daily devotions and blogs at MomsToolbox. She’s attempting to lose a few pounds, but she says having all those cookies around, just calling out to her, is not helping.

For more Works for Me Wednesday visit Rocks in my Dryer.

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