When You Go to an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Two hundred and sixteen. I’ve purchased six bags of Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate chips in December to bake cookies. That’s over two hundred chocolate chip cookies (although the sixteen may be a bit too exact when you live in a household where eating globs of cookie dough is strictly expected). You’re still hoping for my secret recipe, I know. Keep on waiting.

I’ve tried baking our family repertoire of Christmas cookies. Really, every year I do. But this year all I’ve got is a list THIS long of chocolate chip cookie requests. Bag seven’s coming down the pipe on Thursday for our work group holiday lunch. Then perhaps I can get around to the fudge and the toffee and the powdery crinkles that I bake just once a year. Comet and the gang prefer a smorgasbord to chocolate chips after all.

We attended an ugly Christmas sweater soiree on Saturday. Alex wore his favorite holiday sweater (no, really, he wears this thing just about half of the time) and I wore poinsettias and wrapped boxes and ornaments all at once. So much holiday cheer going on. Now, truth be told, we didn’t really get that ugly with our sweaters this year. Ridiculous and over the top? Yes. But my husband here loves those snowball fighting men a little too much and so there we were.

It was such a great time, in that Christmas party sort of way. Lots of hot cocoa and eggnog, Nat King Cole, pictures by the tree. Well, you know how it goes. I took a couple snapshots….