since thanksgiving my free time has been devoted to cookies, cookies, and more cookies. i've shared my knowledge in the form of classes focused on creating royally iced sugar and spiced cookies at the bainbridge artisan resource network, delivered cookies to friends, baked up some sugar and gingerbread cookies to share with santa, as well as reserved some cookies for us to have on christmas eve/day. and this week i’m also participating in a national, "virtual" cookie swap.

sharing is caring, right?

this year marks our second annual "virtual" cookie swap which was born out of a facebook group, and it has been so much fun! virtual is somewhat of a misnomer, since while the swap's derivation is virtual, we don't just swap recipes online, we physically send recipes. it does require a little bit of trust in this cynical, digital age, as you give out your name and address to participate. this particular group is mostly friends and friends of friends, so i didn't feel toooo weird about giving out that info. (it’s all online anyway, isn’t it?) in return, i received a master list of participant's names and addresses and each of us was asked to provide a christmas/holiday cookie recipe that we mailed off to each person by a specified date. then we spend the time leading up to christmas (and even new year's for some stragglers!) receiving fun mail/recipes from all over the country. some people get really creative, sending multiple cookie recipes, recipes along with a holiday card, or homemade treats/samples of the recipe they sent us. this year i even received a personalized iron-on patch for my pot holders/oven mitts.

it's a really fun way to spread christmas cheer to semi-strangers, and gives me something fun to expect each time i check the mail.

in honor of this season of royal icing cookies, i shared this good old-fashioned sugar cookie recipe with the girls.