Family Holiday Cookies

First: Happy New Year to All...............I am busily (is that a word?) cleaning, sorting, and purging. You all know how that is. Every year, I go through this motion and with Chinese New Year on my heels (it will be the Year of the Rabbit) on February 3, I need to quickly clean the house. Cleaning the house is one of the major tasks that need to be completed before the New Year or I will be cursed with bad luck!!!!

I forgot to post our family Holiday Cookies from the swap.....here is just a sampling......yummy!!!
Left photo: Peppermint Sugar Cookies
Right photo: Almond Biscotti Dunkers

Left Photo: M & M Cookies

Right Photo: Funfetti Cookies

Some of the swappers were very creative in their packaging:

These are Red Velvet Rich & Creamy Cookies in little cute lunch boxes!

Don't worry, here are the recipes:

In the Santa bag, Reece's Chewy Chocolate Cookies made by lat - she is a seasoned baker! (note: Recipe is on the Reese's web site, too). E-mail me if you want the recipe.

Next up: a Mother and Daughter (Tina and Laura) joint effort and also seasoned bakers making Molten Chocolate Chip Cookies. (oops, the entire recipe is not revealed - please e-mail me for the pdf)

These are Chocolate Espresso Cookies. I heard the espresso is from Starbucks made by my neice, Nannette.

Next: Michele made these delicious Strawberry Cream Cookies - soft and very delicious!!!

Marissa (age 10) made these Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies and they are yummy, for sure!

This is what I made: Almond Biscotti Dunkers. They are about 3" long and 1/2" wide - this is what I call petite.

Lauren (age 8) made these Peppermint Sugar Cookies. Lauren crushed the peppermint using a hammer - it was a site to see!!!

I got a Cookie in a jar from Teri and made these for Kyoko and Hana for the swap. I was able to find the recipe on line from M&M. Wow - I couldn't believe the crisp exterior and chewy soft center with scattered M&M's.......

These cookies were made by a GUY: Randy.......his first try but a great effort and his cookie tastes great...............he forgot the recipe but that's OK. These thumbprints are a holiday favorite and I do hope he will continue to participate in our annual cookie swap.

Another batch of cookies made by a GUY: Jay made these cookies called Funfetti. Very sweet with the icing and also tastes really good, too! Note the empty plate - someone ate all the cookies when I tried to photograph them but I was did take the photos before the cookies were handed out. Whew!

This was a really fun event with 11 participants this year. Everyone had fun putting their recipes in their decorated box, too.

Thanks for coming by today.............it's not a card or project. It's a follow-up to the holidays!!!! They seemed so long ago already but I haven't finished clearing and cleaning up the house of Christmas yet!!!! I will be done this week and then I can start to play again!!! So stay tuned...............