Christmas is right around the corner and to kick things off, my (practically) mother and sisters-in-law and nieces got together last night for a cookie exchange and craft night.
This was our first year doing a cookie exchange and after the first go, I’m totally sold on the idea. Basically, everyone brings a batch of cookies along and trades, so that each person leaves with a variety of cookies to enjoy with their families.
We decided to make a night of it with dinner and some crafting, too, and had a great time catching up and sharing plenty of laughs.
I made two kinds of cookies for the exchange. This cranberry and white chocolate recipe (I added the zest of one orange to the dough, and think it added just the right amount of zing) is sure to satisfy just about anyone’s sweet tooth. I’ll also note that rather than making them as big as the recipe suggests, I just used a regular cookie scoop to make smaller cookies. They still required the same amount of bake time.
My second contribution was a batch of cookies made using this Mexican hot chocolate snickerdoodle recipe, which uses just a bit of cayenne pepper to give the cookies some heat. So good!
My mother-in-law made some delicious oatmeal cookies (this recipe looks simple enough) and won us all over with a big batch of Mexican wedding cookies/cakes (here’s a recipe for those!)
My sister-in-law made some scrumptious strawberry-filled thumbprint cookies which I was beyond excited about because I’ve never tried them before and now I’m feeling all kinds of inspired to make some myself (I think this recipe looks promising.)
After dinner, we all gathered around to try each cookie one by one (talk about a sugar rush) and broke out the crafting supplies.
The little ladies painted some ceramic light-up Christmas trees, while the grown-ups made DIY mason jar snow globe luminaries. I got the idea here.
I found some bottle brush trees, nutcrackers, and snowmen to fill ours with. It was a fun and simple craft, and I know I’ll be hanging onto mine for a long time!
I hope all of you had a great weekend, and I would love to hear how you’re kicking off Christmas week!
xo, Aly