I'd gladly be your neighbor and help with assorted chores for a batch of homemade cinnamon rolls :-) Those look delicious!!

Annie, those look amazing! I can only imagine how happy your neighbors were. I'm another non-yeast baker, so your cinnamon rolls would be VERY appreciated!

Annie, we exchange with some of our neighbors,too. We are not exactly rural, just small town. Typically I bake various cookies/pastries and for one neighbor, always a poppyseed and nut rolls. (she has a Ukrainian background like me but an aversion to yeast baking...odd,I know) Neighbors have given us mostly foody gifts over the years. Does booze count as food? All of your treats look terrific and I definitely plan to steal your savory cheese/habanero jam idea for NYE. Merry Christmas!

ps- beautiful kitty!

We do that year round. Often no holiday, just thoughtful spontaneous gifting of a slice of cake, (that was good, a gluten-free chocolate cake sloppy slice ...I keep meaning to get the recipe)...

The grand dame matriarch unfortunately passed away last Spring. She set up a group text for storm connecting and 'held us all together'.

This all started the day we moved in a dozen years ago. Just 7 homes spread apart on our lane. Forest. We look after each other.

We share tested/testing recipes. Samples. I'm often more savory...crackers etc.

This type of holiday being a full week I'm expecting latkes, still waiting, lol.

Here we get a knock, a quick pass through the door.

Newfoundland is insane. Small fishing village. No knock, just enter and sit while I'm at the stove or prepping..shoes off at the door always, ...even if I'm upstairs I might have a guest when returning to the kitchen, lol. Took some getting used to but not an issue. Run and errand and a loaf of bread is on our counter or a baked sweet. Never a locked door.

NYC totally different. Small living quarters for most. Social is out and about in the neighborhood. Home base is a sacred zen quiet personal space. NEVER stop by unannounced.

I work NYC, live in the forest just north. We all do holidays different. All festive or sad/festive celebrating those that lost their lives for many reasons.

One neighbor and I usually exchange a small gift, but seldom baked goods as they have quite a few dietary restrictions. My parents exchange gifts with several neighbors, but mostly things like collections of specialty nuts or commercial sweets, seldom are the gifts home-made goods.

When we lived in Ohio I made plates of cookies for neighbors and usually a turkey roasting pan full to take to work. I miss that, I loved doing all that baking. Now everyone around us who isn't diabetic is dieting. Blech.

Annie those cinnamon rolls look amazing. Yummy!!

Those cinnamon rolls look way too good! Way nicer than mine

Annie, those are lovely! I'll have to think of someone to make yeasty treats for. All the kids here aren't kids anymore.

As to your questions: We have a different Jewish holiday, Purim, when we exchange baskets of goodies. Technically, they're supposed to be a meal with at least three different types of things, but most people do baked goods with dried fruit and nuts, and call that three things. :) A lot of people don't want or need food of any kind, and give donations to food banks, and to send baskets to soldiers and the poor, which isn't as festive, but is earnest and well meant, and useful those who could use some help.

On my street, which is very mixed, we used to have an annual get together, but not recently. It was nice to catch up with everyone. In general, however, the good neighbor manners in SoCal are be friendly with your neighbors but not friends. Stop and say a few words if you see them outside. Keep an eye out for intruders, broken sprinklers and escaped pets. But otherwise, pretty much mind your own business. Most of the neighbors are not Christmas people either. Just about everybody in the whole city is on some kind of diet. So no exchanging of holiday goodies.

Therefore, we gobble up your pictures and live vicariously while also being glad not to have to say no thank-you to such tempting goodies. :)

I was actually careful with those cinnamon rolls, I wanted them to look nice so instead of just hacking them into chunks I used my rule to measure inches. Kind of fiddly, but they do look pretty....

I do know the "everyone is on a diet" restriction, you didn't notice that can of Diet Coke sitting there, did you? :-)

I also wonder if the next generation will do anything like this at all. As we age, I also know more and more people who are diabetic or have health issues that prohibit them from various foods, or that keep them from being sufficiently mobile or strong enough to complete that kind of task.

But the Princess did make hot chocolate fudge to take to her Allied Health class, and she said many of her friends also made things, so maybe the younger generation WILL step up and carry on the tradition.

Annie

Your neighbors are very very lucky!

Those are very beautiful cinnamon rolls. When I used to make them at the restaurant, I did not ice them and left them plain. It would take me all night to make them (I worked graveyard 11 pm to 7 am), and I would have to stay late for the rolls to finish. Then when the morning workers came in, they would eat most of them before they could be sold. One of the perks of that restaurant was that workers could eat whatever they wanted for free, but wages were fairly low. It was run by a commune of hippies, and so rules were pretty loose.

My grandmother used to bake a lot of bread and would give pans of dinner rolls (unbaked) to all her neighbors. I think she did it because she loved getting compliments on her bread, but she was also sort of compulsive about baking bread. I learned how to make bread from her as a small child.

In Venice I would give food to the neighbors quite frequently. I could see into their courtyard from my kitchen window, and I would give them food from across the wall/fence that separated us. They were four male college students from Loyola Marymount University (where the last Democratic debate was held), and I would just give them my leftovers rather than throw them away. They would eat anything, but I did also make special candy at Christmas and give them some of that as well. We also exchanged fruit from our back yards. They gave me tangerines, and I gave them oranges, figs, lemons, and limes.

Cheese thumbprints and pickled asparagus...YES!!! :-)

Annie, your rolls look perfect. Much prettier than my own. We had a widowed neighbor who DH would help during the year, her yard, heavier chores...He refused any kind of payment from her that was not in the form of her cinnamon rolls. 3 or 4 times a year she would call and say, coming out of the oven in a half hour, give me a few more minutes to glaze and meet me at the fence ;0)

Miss her, we lost her three years ago.

I would LOVE your thumbprints.

Those look so good! And a photo of my favorite kitty too. Give hima snuggle from me and Emma.

Twenty-four cinnamon rolls, divided by a family of 7 + 3 leftover rolls = Anarchy.

Looks yummy, AnnieB.

Sol