Hey, remember when I used to blog every day? That was fun.

I’ve been busy working and getting into the holiday spirit.

And getting into the holiday spirit with coworkers. We had our holiday party on Friday night at Toy in the Gaansevort, formerly known as Tanuki Tavern.

And yesterday I hosted my third annual cookie swap! (2010, 2011 )

Thursday night I texted my friend Shannon ready to cancel. I hadn’t had time to prep beyond making this cookie swap board on Pinterest and thought it would be more stressful than it was worth to do it all Saturday morning. She offered to help and convinced me it would be worth it, and the party went on.

COOKIES. And yes, my Stick is just part of my decor.

My apartment is not the best for food photography. I demand a refund on my rent.

We had hummus, veggies, cheese and chips and salsa to munch on. I’ve learned from cookie swaps past that you don’t need much food because people are eating the cookies.

And a special shoutout to this beautiful hunk of cheese. There is one cheese they serve at Junior League that I’m obsessed with and I never knew what it was. I finally asked last week, and it is spicy Monterey Jack. I picked up a hunk for the party yesterday…and proceeded to destroy most of it myself.

Ashley came matching my walls, so I made her hand out champagne.

I am obsessed with Meghan’s sock bun. I think my hair might be too short now though.

Look who was in from Boston!

Awesome runner friends. (Leticia, Emily, Jocelyn and Christine.)

There is nowhere on the Internets I can link to how awesome these two are, but Shannon and Jen are two of my favorite people ever.

I thought I took a picture with Emily, but it appears to have disappeared from my camera or my phone, but she showed up basically matching me.

You know you live in a NYC studio when you serve your snacks on your dresser and pretend it’s a buffet.

SO MANY COOKIES.

What kind of cookies did I make?

Well…by the time I got around to making cookies, it was as everyone was showing up, and they ended up burning. BUT! The recipe I was using was for peppermint chocolate chip cookies and I’m giving it another try today.

Last year, someone asked how a cookie swap works. I’m sure everyone does it differently, but what I do is ask people to bring about two dozen cookies. Then, I go around and have everyone introduce themselves and tell everyone about their cookie, so everyone can meet and so nobody with allergies (myself included) dies from eating someone’s cookie.

It was a fun time, and that I somehow managed to fit more than 20 people into my studio must be some sort of Christmas miracle.

What’s your favorite kind of Christmas cookie??