Cookie Swap for One -- XOTV Weekly
Hello and welcome to maybe the tastiest newsletter we've had...it focuses on the sweet comfort of baked goods during the holidays. Brenna Knight introduces us to her take on a pandemic cookie swap, and even includes cookie recipes to prove her point!
Read on to learn about the mini-swap she's created, and how you can too. Post photos of your cookie creations and hashtag them #xotv to be reposted onto our various platforms.
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Cookie Swap for One
In this year of the pandemic, I like so many others have spent more time in my kitchen than ever before. After so many months of constantly cooking and baking, I was honestly burnt out. Thanksgiving came and went, and my enthusiasm for cooking went right along with it. I was in a rut during what is arguably the most exciting time of year! With no holiday parties on the calendar, friends hundreds of miles away, and the pandemic raging on, it felt like the holidays were going to pass without much fanfare.
I couldn’t help but think back to past holidays that were filled with ice skating, viewing Christmas lights, bonfires, watching the Nutcracker, and attending arguably the best kind of holiday party: the cookie exchange. There’s something extremely nostalgic about a good old fashioned cookie exchange - a group of your friends and family coming together and sharing their favorite cookies. Empty Tupperware piled up on the kitchen counter. Steaming mugs of hot chocolate being passed around. Cellophane bags waiting to be filled to the brim with cookies of all shapes and sizes. Light, jazzy tunes of Christmas classics playing in the background. Those are the sights and smells of the holidays for me. It’s a moment of celebration that’s made even sweeter by the taste of your favorite cookie...read more.
Opportunities
Self Care 
Yogi Adriene Mishler (Yoga with Adriene) is sharing a free, no-strings-attached, 30-day yoga practice. While this doesn't point to creativity directly, the more we take care of our bodies, the more freedom our minds have to wander to the fun things, the creative things. The challenge starts January 1st, and you can sign up here.
And lastly, we are partnered with the wonderful Culturs to create this newsletter. Culturs is the home for people who straddle the intersections of Race, Ethnicity, culture, home and more. This week's article that we've pulled from their archives focuses on how food is steeped in tradition, and how we take it with us through life's changes.