Cookies Aftermath

First, I want to show off the cookies *I* MADE:




As I write this I am savoring the remnants of a Seven-Layer cookie bar… yum… And yeah, so much for the freakin’ willpower. Of course, I did fabulous all day yesterday. Unbelievably fabuloso. Even put on a pair of pants I wasn’t sure would fit and hadn’t worn in over a year. Not sure if they looked all right or not, but they were zippable so that was a plus. Am not looking forward to WW tomorrow but Oh-to-the-Well. That’s the start of a rap song by the way. One I’m making up. Sounds catchy… Oh-to-the-Well, Weight Watchers is hell.

So, a blast last night. Like 14 bottles of wine between 35 women, and ON A SCHOOL NIGHT! What does THAT say about my neighborhood? Yes, we like to par-tay. I have the best neighborhood in the entire world, minus the crack addicts that keep trying to rob all of us, I’d say it’s a pretty rockin’ hood! Not often does a hostess throw a party and does she actually GET to enjoy the party herself, but even I had a great time!

Mr. Manic was out of town so I got a babysitter to strap the three kids down upstairs so they would not murder one another so I could relax. Another thing I was a bit pre-stressed about was my carpets. The weather outside is frightful. Well, the snow has stopped, and there are no more ice storms, but that means it’s now all muddy and sloppy and salty and goopy out, which translates to muddy and sloppy and salty and goopy getting tracked all inside. If you haven’t guessed my now, I’m pretty anal about crumbs and dirt and messes so I was concerned about my carpets and asked one of my friends how rude it would be to ask everyone to remove their shoes upon entering.

“People will understand,” she said. “It’s crappy outside. They have kids, they know what it’s like.”

“But what if they don’t?” I whined.

“You’re creative, come up with something!” she suggested.

So I did:



And it worked:



And not having to worry about my carpets getting filthy and having to steam clean them today sure beat taking and handful of Xanax last night and following everyone around with a bottle of Resolve or Bubble wrapping the floor (remember that commercial from a few years ago?!)

Here are some pics of the cookies in my dining room the night before, as I had all the ladies drop them off in advance--look at all the boxes of cookies!



The pre-assembling of the cookies was even so much fun!

Here's how the boxes were shaping up as we assemly-line filled them in my kitchen:



Here's a close-up of what the boxes looked like after they were filled:



Cookie boxes filled -- Don't they look like pretty presents?





One of my neighbors who helped with the assembly line of cookie assortment box filling brought over a newspaper article on some la-dee-dah neighborhood cookie exchange and there was a photo of the women wearing their Burberry (did I even spell that right?) Gear, and drinking their la-dee-dah wine, with their foo-foo la-dee-dah whatever crap and they were looking all you-know, and I was like, “HEY! Let’s call the local paper and get them to come out and do a story on OUR cookie exchange, cuz ours is gonna be way better than this foo-foo one!”

So I called and left a message at the editorial desk, but sadly, no one returned my call. I bet they were afraid to come to this section of town seeing as we've got the crack addicts trolling around here lately looking for houses to break into. Too bad they didn't want the story though, cuz then they might have gotten some happening shots from a REAL cookie exchange party:







Anyway, it was so much fun, and neighbors were so gracious and kind and fun and I couldn’t ask for a better group of neighbors who I can honestly call girlfriends too! And guess what? I discovered this last year when I hosted the first Annual Manic Holiday Cookie Exchange. There’s this thing called a "hostess gift." I had no idea but people bring presents to the person hosting the party! Look at THIS:



I have decided to keep them all under the tree and open them Christmas day and make believe they are all from Santa Claus!