Fancy Flours, Simple Pleasures

We've been together a long time and you are only now seeing the street where I live.

Embarrassing, really. Not so much my street, but the fact that, of the nine other families living on my Harvestwood Court, I only know the names of three other families. And one of the families is my in-laws who live across the street and up three houses (Picture "Everybody Loves Raymond" live and in color).

I grew up in Douglaston, New York - a neighborhood where everyone knew everyone else and, more importantly, people made time to involve themselves in the lives of one another. It was a neighborhood in the truest sense of the word and one of life's greatest simple pleasures.

Nine total families on my street and November marks two years since we moved in. Let's just say, I'm not shining in the Good Neighbor Department.

Yet.

September 28, 2009 marks National Good Neighbor Day and I am determined to use the holiday as an occasion to break the cycle - to stop the madness.

You see the writing on the wall, I hope.

Good.

Let's get straight to the business of the day. We have monthly activity going. I pick a holiday worth celebrating and you pick a cookie cutter that I must use to bake a treat worthy of celebration. Fancy Flours is the company of our choice because they have a CRAZY BIG selection of cookie cutters and their gift wrapping is fabulous!

The contest is made more fun if you pick a cookie cutter you think will be true challenge for me to build into the holiday theme. Kind of like Earth Day and porcupines, Bass Fish and Backyard Games Day; Mermaids and my husband's birthday; airplanes and National Ice Cream Month, and yes... an ear of corn and Freshmen Orientation. I'd say this group has the hang of it.

Consider yourself a novice? It's easy. Click here. Find the cookie cutter you consider least related to National Good Neighbor Day. Visit the comment section to cast your vote, then tune in on Friday to find out the winner. Check back on Monday, September 28 to see what creation we've come up with (and to take a crack at winning your very own)!

Done, done, and done.

Signing off until tomorrow...