Cookie party!

During the holidays, all bets (and resolutions and gram counts) are off. Weight has no meaning, and yoga pants are my friends. We can all eat holiday goodies with impunity, right? This year the women in our neighborhood came up with a great idea: a cookie exchange party. Instead of spending days and days making treats, why not just make a few and exchange with your neighbors?

So we did. And it was fun! Everyone went home with enough treats to fuel their families through Christmas and beyond.

Do the math—if half a dozen women each bring two dozen or so of a couple of different kinds, everyone gets half a dozen of everything, which is more than enough to entertain with for a couple of days. My contributions were Lemon Squares, Apricot Zing squares, and my grandmother’s whipped shortbread cookies (containing no less than a pound of butter—yikes!) After sampling them—amid gales of laughter and glasses of yummy sparkly beverages—we divided them up, loaded up our Tupperware containers, and took them home.

It was a great way to build friendship, give a little, get a little, and have a low-stress good time.