Recently it was a friend’s birthday… he claimed he’s too old for birthdays, but since he also admitted he’s not too old for cookies, I insisted we compromise. I gave him cookies for “a random day in January.” His favorite cookies are gingerbread. At Christmas, M&Ms released a very limited run of gingerbread M&Ms. By limited, I mean they only carried them at Wal-Mart. What. Not fair!

Since the closest Wal-Mart to me is almost an hour away (I think), I asked my dear mama to send me some next time she goes (since she lives in Texas, where there are Wal-Marts on every corner). Next thing I know, I have a box with 4 bags of gingerbread M&Ms, a bag of cherry cordial M&Ms, and a bag of “holiday mint” M&Ms. I still haven’t figured out what to do with most of that, but I used one bag of the gingerbread flavor to make M&M cookies for P’s birthday.

I used my new stacking wire racks to cool them – a Christmas present from Mom, and a great space-saver! I decided just giving him the cookies wasn’t festive enough, so I thought up a way to turn birthday cookies into BIRTHDAY COOKIES!!

Then, of course, I made him pose with the BIRTHDAY COOKIES!! so I could send a photo to his wife. I decided he might not like me plastering his face on the Internet, so you get the very skillfully modified version, but I assure you has a big grin on his face. The photo process went like this:

Me: I need a picture of the birthday cookie for your wife.
P: *sets cookie on top of something on his desk*
Me: No, you have to be in the picture WITH it.
P: *holds cookie up awkwardly*
Me: Hold it like you love it. Hold it like it’s your child.
P: *begins petting cookie creepily*
Me: Well, look HAPPY about it!!

I think the pink candle was his very favorite part. (and yes, he also got a big bag full of cookies to take home and presumably share with his family..)