cookie exchange

i'm so excited to have gotten this silicone baking mold. i like making toffee, but the clean-lined, symmetrical side of me always wanted to make identical little pieces of toffee. don't get me wrong, the randomly broken up pieces taste just as good ... but how cute are these little squares? i love them. and i was able to get two molds for about $3 thanks to my jo-ann's coupons & a gift card. yay!


the cookie exchange went beautifully. in the center of the plate are liz's s'mores squares, and then (clockwise from lower left) melanie's chocolate chunk cookies, marlana's chocolate chip cheesecake squares, my toffee, april's snowballs, my mom's peppermint thumbprint cookies, lynn's cappuccino flats and holly's christmasy cinnamon doodles. yummy.

big surprise of the day: marlana came! she was able to spend a couple of weeks in the region visiting family, and so we got to spend some time together. after the exchange, she, liz and i went out for dinner and sat around talking for a couple of hours. i feel bad that the restaurant doesn't get a lot of business ... but it worked well for us that we could take the table just to chat for so long. :)