Holiday cookie exchange

Have you ever seen.....

That many delicious cookies in one place?!??!

To kick off the weekends in the holiday month of December, a friend at work was gracious enough to host a holiday cookie exchange at her condo downtown! I had never been to a cookie exchange, so I was very interested in what exactly it entailed. And I have to say the host, Lindsay, did a GREAT job of keeping everyone informed and up to speed on what we had to bring. It went a little like this:

• You say you will attend!
• You wait to see how many other people say they are coming
• You decide what kind of cookies you are going to make
• The host sends you the total count (we did 1/2 dozen for each person)
• You send the host your recipe and then you make the cookies!
• Bring your cookies to the party
• Use the treat sacks/bags provided by the host to collect all your cookies- 6 each of everyone's
• Play a fun game (if your host is awesome like ours was)
• Pick up your recipe cards with everyone's cookie recipe
• Take your cookies home and enjoy them :)

Here was our spread with all the different bags and containers that Lindsay had for us to use. Depending on the cookie size, there were some really cute bags...but some of the cookies (like my FAVORITE- the chocolate marshmallow brownie cookie...YUM) were too big to fit in the small bags!

Overall, the cookie exchange was a great idea and so much fun! I made cream cheese spritz cookies with my cookie spritzer fun tool and they were delicious!

But I did want to showcase what a good and cute job Lindsay did of decorating for the holiday cookie exchange. She hosted it in her condo building downtown's party room. It was so cute and had all the drinks, snacks and cute little holiday designs you want! Check out these super cute holiday spirits!!

And I finally got to meet her sweet English bulldog named Diesel. He was so cute and I'm glad he got to make a showcase since I have heard all about him!!

One final shot for you of everyone collecting their yummy cookies. What a GREAT holiday idea and a way to get friends together to share recipes and holiday cheer. A big thanks to Lindsay for hosting a bunch of Hallmarkers for this great new holiday tradition! I can't wait to (maybe) try to host my own next year!!

P.S. If you are interested in making spritz cookies, here is the recipe that I used!!

Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies:

1 cup butter, softened (don't use margarine!)
1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
Dash of salt

Cream together butter and cream cheese in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla and almond extract. Combine flour and salt together; gradually add to reamed mixture, beating well until blended.

Shape dough into a ball and chill thoroughly (if desired, split dough into desired portions and use food coloring to dye it).

Press dough from a cookie press 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheets, using desired shaping disks. If desired, sprinkle with sugar crystals, etc. to decorate.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 min or until very lightly browned on bottom. Remove to cool. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.