I'm here! Finally I'm here! I really didn't take my gifts & run off without returning gifts to each of you. :) I want to first apologize for my slow response in thanking you all. I'm so, so sorry that I wasn't able to get on here & thank you sooner. It wasn't because I didn't appreciate your gifts. I absolutely did. As some of you know, I have rheumatoid arthritis. I usually fight it & only have a couple of days at a time when it keeps me down. Most of the time I'm able to function fairly well. Every once in a while I have a major flare up that knocks me down completely. When that happens, since I live alone, I need help with simple things like getting in & out of bed, etc. I don't like imposing on people more than I have to. So instead of asking family to come stay with me during that time, I go stay with one of them. I just got home 2 days ago & opened these remaining boxes yesterday. Monipsych/Monica sent me: 2 Cross stitch kits, one floral & one of teapots. Tiger Lily Bath set which included body mist,lotion,soap, bath salts & sachet. A Pretty teapot tart burner with 4 Yankee candle tarts that smell wonderful. 2 mini wind chimes, one for St. Patrick's day & one floral bell. A thermometer for outdoors, a teapot picture frame. Some tulip bulbs & lots of seeds for planting. Thank you Monica for nice things. Earthly Delights/Maryanne sent me: A very pretty Thomas Kincade gift set. It included the decorated gift box which contained a mug, tea, bon bons, cookies & a diary. She also sent me a lavender bath set which consisted of washcloth, shower gel & body butter. She sent me some yummy goodies: Cookies, chocolate almonds & cinnamon roasted cashews. Some note cards & a prayer card was attached to the birthday card. Plus a big, fat chicken with wind chimes hanging from it. So cute!. Thank you Maryanne for the wonderful box of gifts. ggwrn/Ginger sent me: A pretty garden flag, 2 pot stakes which are a fairy & a gnome. A cute bunny pot holder & easter egg kitchen towel. Then LOTS of pamper me stuff! 2 bath bombs, green tea lotion, 2 pacs of foot scrub, foot lotion, 2 facial pacs & a bath pillow. Thank you Ginger for the wonderful gifts. Dawiff/Alison sent me: A pretty teapot spoon rest. A cute fairy on a daisy. The daisy is big but shallow so I think it will be perfect for a butterfly water bowl. A beautiful white wall sconce. A pretty tea light burner with a bag full of tea-lights. Plus 10 wonderful smelling Yankee candle tarts to burn also. Thanks Alison for the wonderful gifts. Hummingbird Daisy/ Tina sent me: A hummingbird garden kit. It has a 8" hanging basket with potting medium & seeds for hummingbirds. Thanks Tina for the nice gift. Once again I'm so sorry for the late thank yous. Dawiff & Earthly Delights have been in a year long swap with me before. Hopefully they will vouch for me when I say I have never been absent this long before. I try to be a good swap partner & post thank you notes promptly. I try to send nice boxes out early in the month. I just couldn't help it this time. Please don't think I was intentionally being rude & thoughtless. On a brighter note, I mailed my April & May boxes today. So Monica's might be a day late & Maryanne's a day early.

Janie, I made these this past Christmas. I saw instructions on another board. After poking a hole in the top of each gingerbread cookie with a wooden skewer, it said to bake them at 200 degrees for 4 hours. However, some people said that when they used these instructions, that their cookies fell apart, so I cooked mine at 200* for 3 hours. I used the pointed end of the skewer to make the hole. On the front of the box, it said that the cookies were "soft", but I thought mine were pretty hard, so the pointed end helped get the hole through. After baking and cooling, I dipped them in melted parafin wax, and laid them on waxed paper to dry. I used red satin ribbon for hanging. The cookies already have red and green sugar sprinkled over the thin coat of white frosting, so I didn't decorate them at all. Someone said they put a small strip of red fleece around the necks of their ornies. I hung mine on our tree early in December, and when we took the tree down in January, my cookies still looked perfect and smelled great. I chose not to save the ornaments, as I didn't want a food item in my storage area. I think they could have been frozen in a protective plastic container, and could have been saved for next year. My only complaint was that out of 2 boxes of 8 of the gingerbread cookies, I had only 7 that were not broken when I took them out of their little individual cellophane packaging. Good luck!

I'm so sorry it has taken so long for the cookies to get to you - it seems I had transposed a digit in your zip code. Unfortunately, I was having computer problems when I was sending the lists out and was unable to "cut & paste" so I was re-typing everyone address. Just ask Annie about address mess-ups - I can't even blame her incorrect address on a number switching error! LOL! I am just a bit dyslexic when it comes to numbers, so even with my checking and double checking, it got by me. Many apologies for the mistake! Needless to say - I have everyones CORRECT address stored now, and without any further tech problems and an earlier mail date - it should be much smoother next year! Again - my apologies for the delay ~ Alexa

Thank you Diane, Debbie, and Alva! I'm surprised to see that they made it to NY so fast. Looks like they made the trip okay for the most part. It was 75 here the day I shipped, that was not in the plan. LOL I was hoping they would be heading to cooler climates but I think y'all were/are in the sixties. We only makes these at Christmas in my family and they have always been a favoite of mine. Glad to hear you are enjoying them. Thanks for posting the pics too! David