The Cookie Exchange and Ornament Swap

This past Tuesday I was invited to my very first Cookie Exchange and Ornament Swap. I used to work with this guy named Steve and he and his wife Sheila (the angel ornament lady) were hosting their annual Cookie Exchange this Sunday (today). It sounded like fun so I RSVP'ed that I would come. The rules were you had to bring 2 ornaments, hand made or purchased from a store and 5 and a half dozen cookies that were homemade. Prizes would be given for: 1. Best Display, 2. Most "Christmasy" Cookie, 3. Most Unique Cookie, 4. Most Delicious and 5. Overall People's Choice. I feel like I'm a fairly creative person so I decided that I would try and win the Best Display category. Many ideas flooded my mind, and I will spare you the details, but after perusing through multiple craft stores I came up with the one I would use. It also took me days to try and figure out what cookie I would make. I finally decided on the Chocolate Snickerdoodle Drops. I went out Saturday morning and purchased the ingredients for the 66 cookies. I started with the first batch and they kept coming out burnt. I adjusted the time of baking and the temperature but it didn't matter. I figured it was because of the ridiculous quantity of sugar the recipe called for. After 3 pans of burned cookies I abandoned ship and threw them and the rest of the dough away. I chatted with my mom on the phone and she recommended a recipe called Toto's Italian Cookies. I got the recipe off line, went back to the store for those ingredients and spent the rest of the evening and well in to the wee hours of the morning making these "Toto's". Thankfully one batch made all the cookies I needed and it also had a frosting recipe that I made as well. I frosted each individual Toto and it about killed me :). The cookies turned out pretty well. They aren't a very sweet cookie but it was fun to make something different.
So, the cookie exchange was a ton of fun. I got to visit with a few people that I used to work with at the architectural firm and taste lots of yummy cookies/bars/brownies. I knew almost immediately that my display "had it in the bag". After everyone voted for their favorites and the judges cast their ballots for the above mentioned categories, the results were in. Steve read them aloud and I won the first 2 categories. I couldn't believe it! It was very exciting :)! I got to pick out of the grab basket and decided on 2 cookie cutters. Here are some pics. Enjoy!

These are the two ornaments I made for the exchange:





The cookies I made are the 4 light brown ones in the middle of the picture.



Me with my award winning display :).



My display and my 2 prizes