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!

Wow, I can't believe those got there already, I just mailed them yesterday! I used the rice flour in the swap cookies, Readinglady was kind enough to send it, along with the Callebaut chocolate I dipped the cookies in. I made another batch with cornstarch though, and it was just as good. I did use powdered sugar because I couldn't find superfine. I really liked the ones with the crystallized ginger, although I sent Jayne the mocha. That's because I had already eaten the extra ginger ones. LOL (Not really, Jayne, it was because you said you didn't care for gingersnaps so I figured ginger wasn't a good idea) It's definitely a keeper recipe, thanks to Readinglady. I'm glad you liked them, Sherry, I know you said you really enjoyed shortbread so I figured you'd be the "expert" cookie tester. (grin) Annie

Another lucky recipient of those festive green yummy treats! From all reports they are delish - I hope you enjoy them! Alexa