A Christmas tree decorating party

Photo by Matt Wei

Though I live in a small apartment in Seattle, I was determined to put up a Christmas tree this year. My family has a 'spare' fake tree that my mom let me use, along with a box of lights and ornaments that we haven't used in years. It was the perfect opportunity to bake lots of cookies and invite friends over last weekend to decorate.

I spent Saturday baking: gingerbread men, chocolate chip walnut cookies, peanut butter hershey's kiss cookies... I bought store-bought sugar cookie dough because there just wasn't enough time. I cut the cookie dough into bells, trees, stars, and snowmen for everyone to decorate with colored frosting.

Photo by Matt Wei

Since I don't have a rolling pin, I used the next best thing: a wine bottle! After a thorough scrubbing it worked quite well.


My friend Katie brought her famous Santa cookies and homemade frosting. After eating one of these cookies you'll very likely go into a sugar coma and be unable to consume anything else for about a half hour. But they're delicious.
It was a great night. We decorated cookies, ate pizza, drank spiced cider, watched A Christmas Story, and, of course, decorated the tree.

Photo by Matt Wei's handy 10-second timer

And the tree!