Sweetest addition arrived late to cookie exchange

Olive the topiary reindeer keeps watch over the main cookie table.

But we had so many cookies this year that we even had to use the window sills to display them!

But first, cocktails. Here are Gay Lyons, left, and Susan Brown, who served as the bartender. A funny thing: You never know what drink is going to be most popular. This year, Bloody Marys were the hit. Nobody drank a single beer. Sometimes, it’s mimosas or white wine.

Ellen Robinson, left, and Dawn Ford.

Ranee Randby, left, and Dr. Martha Buchanan.

From left, Sara Hedstrom Pinnell, Monique Anderson and Sara Fortune Rose.

Shaun Fulco Hyver, left, and Tami Hartmann.

Then, food. Here’s the Barefoot Contessa’s smoked salmon dip, a favorite of many of us. (Click here for that easy recipe.)

Susan and Martha getting their brunch on.

Sara Rose, left, and Phyllis Nichols seem rather intense.

Monique Anderson, left, and Mintha Roach grabbed seats at the window.

Michelle Hardin, right, brought her mom, Dortha. She was a fun addition.

From left, Annette Winston, Dawn Ford and Sheena McCall.

Janet Testerman Creswell, left and Gay Lyons plopped on the floor. (We do have limited seating in our downtown condo. But it’s cozy!)

Anyway, I guess they liked it. Here’s what was left of the Christmas Brunch Casserole, a Pinterest recipe. Click here, if you’d like to see what’s in it.

The cookies were awesome, as usual. Tami Hartmann made these thumbprints.

She also brought these Christmas mice — a tradition for our group by now.

Julia Bentley brought peanut butter kiss cookies.

These shortbread cookies were festive.

These sugar cookies by Monique Anderson look great on the tray she selected.

I was proud of Shaun Fulco Hyver. She usually buys her cookies, but this year made these Oreo cookie balls herself — and they were fantastic.

Smoky Mountain Snowcaps.

Ranee’s contribution: peanut butter chocolate chip. What’s not to like?

Not sure what these were, except dang good!

These coconut numbers by Phyllis Nichols were big hits.

Sara Pinnell’s were supposed to be Linzer trees. But she discovered she didn’t have a tree cookie cutter — so she made Linzer fish!

Mary Ellen Brewington brought delicious lemon lavender cookies.

These were some kind of lemon cake cookies. Yummy.

Sheena McCall contributed super tasty chocolate shortbread cookies.

Margaret Rodgers made the most adorable gingerbread people!

It’s cookie time! Here’s Sheena, followed by Shaun.

From left, Julia Bentley, Monique, Ellen Robinson and Janet. This is very serious business!

Phyllis Nichols, left, and Michelle Hardin.

Susan Brown, left, and Kristin Grove were taking a more deliberative approach.

This cracked me up! Margie Nichols is among the smallest at the party — but she had two tins to fill up. (Actually, one was for Annette, Margie’s neighbor who had to leave early to catch a performance of “The Nutcracker.”)

Haha! Phyllis only had one tin — pay no attention to whatever is under that aluminum foil!

Julia Bentley sampling the wares.

And, after the volume died down as folks drifted out with their plunder, Rexie, the shyest cat in the world, made an appearance.