Last week an invitation came our way to an Ugly Sweater Cookie (decorating) party. What's that, you ask? Well, we'd never heard of it, either, but we decided to take a chance, and ended up having a grand time. Our hosts, Lynne and Dan, provided the cookie decorating kit, complete with chocolate and vanilla cookies, green, white and red icing, tiny candy sprinkles shaped like trees, candy canes and gingerbread men.
But first, a group selfie: L-R, bottom row - me, Annette, Mary. L-R, top row - Dan, Tim, Lynne (hiding behind the blinking antlers), Jimmy and Ted. (sorry, Lynne) Notice we're wearing festive, sort of silly, fun hats that Annette brought. In fact, the entire afternoon was devoted to having fun! More merriment at holiday time is the best antidote for stress and blues.
After a simple and delicious buffet, we crowded around the table to get serious about decorating. Again, beginning with Jimmy on the left, there's Dan, Lynne, Mary, Annette, Ted and Tim. Each had his or her own idea of how to create an ugly sweater. We passed the colored icings, intent on making a perfectly ugly cookie.
This collage tells the tale. Top left is a blank slate. I began squeezing out icing, outlining my cookie in red, and carefully placed little candies ... and then to make it really ugly, I dumped round candies on top. I think it looks more like a bat. Bottom left pic shows three finished cookies from Jimmy and Me. Bottom right shows ... uh-oh, somebody took a bite! (I cannot tell a lie. Yummy! By this time, I'd already eaten my "bat" cookie.) I'm like the Cookie Monster: Me love cookies!
Annette dipped her mouth in the multi-colored candies on the paper in front of her, and when she raised her head and looked at us, we guffawed. That started it, and the rest of us joined in ... truly, we laughed and laughed till we had tears rolling from our eyes.
Next came Lynne, who dipped her mouth in tiny green candies, and turned her teeth green in the process. Can you feature the laughter?
I followed by licking my lips and then plopped my lips in a pile of tiny red candies. I had some major red "lipstick" all over my lips and halfway up to my nose. I am nearly falling over, laughing!
Mary, covering her lips in icing and then the green candies, made us hysterical.
Believe it or not, the guys got into it, too! Tim and Ted, top, used the multicolored candies, as did Dan, below right. Ted looked like he was growing more teeth, which sent us into more hysterics. Jimmy covered the end of his nose (à la Rudolph) in red. Getting rid of our "lip gloss" and mustache icing and red noses was best accomplished by licking the sweet stuff off! We made a bit of a mess with all those tiny loose candies that wanted to hop onto the floor, but Lynn, bless her heart, said not to worry, the vacuum would take care of it. Thank you, Lynne and Dan, for a very entertaining afternoon.
Jimmy and I -- before cookies -- posed for a picture with our hats on.
Eight of us created some abominable sweaters as you see above ... our contribution to ugly sweaters. One cookie is missing -- the one I'd already eaten. Some of these cookies look like molars, one reminded us of a menorah, the rest are just messy. I cleaned the area where I worked by eating all the candies left on the paper. Big-time sugar rush. Each person took his/her cookies home. Needless to say, ours are gone now!
Good friends, great times, and sweet treats -- what could be better?
