Holiday Cookie Exchange 2010

I did a cookie exchange with My People Connection last year and blogged about it here. It was the first exchange I'd ever participated in. This year My PC also has a meetup group that held the same event. My friend Jen T. is the creator of My PC and host of this event:

And once again today I came away with quite a haul of home-baked goodies:

The ten people who showed up

were a smaller group than last year, but they made such a variety of treats, from biscotti, to potato chip cookies to white chocolate-macadamia goodies. The biggest benefit of participating in an exchange is the amount of different things you'll have to serve afterward, while puting out the same effort as making one kind of cookie. It was also really nice to have the opportunity to make new friends.

I used some of my Longaberger baskets and pottery for the first time to bring my spiced nuts and the chocolate-banana bar cookie I made last year--I was in too much of a rush to experiment this time around.

Jen started off the event by having everyone lay out their goodies next to one another on a long buffet table. We went around the room letting everyone know what we'd brought. After some conversation we took a turn around the table, taking a few of each in our own containers to bring home. When everyone had had a turn there were still goodies left over so we went around about three times before all had been distributed.

Here's a tutorial and recipe on making potato chip cookies like the balls I got today (though these are flattened while the ones today were in a ball-shape). An article from WikiHow describes chocolate covered matzah also similar to something that was at the exchange.

What are the standards that you MUST make every year? Do you participate in any holiday exchanges? With what groups? Or do you take goodies to a specific place, like work, each year? Share your traditions, new and old, with me in a comment on the blog.