sugar headache

At around 2:00 on Sunday, Sarah said, "I already have such a sugar headache, and I've only had two cookies." I scoffed at her, thinking "sugar neophyte, I'll never get a sugar headache." And wounded, I hung my head and moaned around five hours later, while my brain writhed in agony, awash in a sugar sea.

I had a christmas cookie decorating party yesterday, which was an outrageous success, and involved almost as much fun as it did powdered sugar. I had three gorgeous elves over, Sarah, Thea and Ruthann, and they plied themselves at their trade as if not finishing all six hundred cookies would land them in Christmas Jail. Here they are in a post-sugar-rush/pre-sugar-coma state:

It was pretty brutal. We started out slowly, creating masterpieces and intricately designed cookies. Thea created Mr. Bahama (you'll see him below), complete with flip flops and sunburn. Ruthann rocked it hardcore with the black frosting and lightbulb cookies. And Sarah brought out the iconoclast in all of us with her camouflage colored candy cane (the "camo-cane" (below)) and her American flag christmas tree, not to mention Long Island (also below).

I love these women. I love these cookies. I love that these women came to my house (from far-flung Queens, and even the Bronx!) to spend the day with me doing Holiday Homemaking.

I hate that I didn't get any pictures of Sarah at work. However, I did get this one of her taking pictures:

(please note that the coat rack has been re-hung)

Here are some of the trays of cookies we made. Imagine six times as many cookies, on every conceivable surface of your kitchen:

(camo-cane is on the left, and note Ruthann's tie-guy on the right, complete with a nut belt buckle! Also, right next to camo-cane is Sarah's Gingy Penis Guy. I'm going to try to smuggle him to work and see if anyone notices they're eating an anatomically (semi)correct gingerman. Also at the top is Sarah's second cookie, the candy cane failure, which, while very pink and somewhat non-specific looking, will still be exceptionally tasty!)

Here's Thea, diligently working away:

By the end of the party, we decided it was important to document the winners in three separate categories: 1) Best Non-Traditional, 2) Best Traditional, and 3) Ugliest.

May I present, best non-traditional:

Left to right: Mr. Bahama (Thea), Black Lightbulb (with filament) (Ruthann), Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (Sarah)

Best Traditional:

Left to right: little happy tree (Kate), big happy tree (Kate), shiny candy cane (Thea), and friendly Wal-Mart tree (because it's white) (Kate)

Yes, some of us were decorating things our mothers could serve at her Christmas parties... (and some of us have been doing this for the last 25 years -- my mom used to have us "help," which really meant she gave us each a cookie, we'd frost it, lick the frosting off and then frost it again. My sister and I are very helpful!)

And my favorite category, The Ugliest:

Left to right: Gouty Hand (Thea), Long Island (Sarah), Trilobite (Sarah), and Bizarro Religious Guy (who-wanted-to-be-shirt-and-pants-with-zipper-guy) (Kate)

I hope I can turn this into a tradition. Because I had so much fun with these women. I feel so lucky to have them in my life!

Merry Christmas (a little early!)