So for Christmas, Jameson and I walked a plate of cookies to all of our neighbors. We ended up giving away about 10 plates of cookies. The good things is that we had a cookie swap, so I only made 2 different kinds of cookies, but we had at least 4 different types on each plate. One neighbor that’s been really nice, and lives across the street was never home. We could never catch them home so we left them on the door step. We received a Christmas card in our mailbox a few days later. It read:

“Merry Christmas Neighbors! Wishing you & your family a wonderful holiday. Thank you so much for the card & cookies! We’ve lived here 9 years & you’re the first neighbor to show such a nice gesture of kindness. ~Nance & Alejandro”

My first thought was, “I’m glad they got the cookies before the squirrels did.” Secondly, isn’t that so sad. We well definitely be making our rounds next year. We might even need to do things in between. They’re pretty funny, too. They love to visit Reno, and go a few times a year. We might have mentioned they should go over Labor Day for the rib cook-off. We’ll see as it gets closer if they actually do.

Why is this all relevant? Yesterday, my doorbell rang. I was questioning who it was as I walked to the door. I opened it to see my neighbor that lives straight across the street. She had a plate of these.

I have no idea what they are. She tried to tell me, but she doesn’t speak English very well. She told me they were for the Chinese New Year since we brought her cookies. Well, who would have thought? I wondered when we took the cookies around if we should say “Merry Christmas,” because most of our neighbors are different cultures. But then, I thought, this is our religious belief, and this is why we are bringing cookies. Plus, it’s a great missionary experience for me and Jameson. Anyway, Kevin was not feeling well, so it was up to me to try these and figure out what they are. Kevin did stop me from biting the whole thing, thinking it was probably like a tamale and you have to unwrap them. Good thing he is smart.

So I unwrapped it, and find this.

The outside is some type of sticky rice or flour or something. It basically feels like Gak (remember from the quarter machines that we played with as kids, and our parents hated?) It doesn’t really have a taste. It’s a total texture thing. Inside was stuffed with coconut, chopped nuts, and I think she told me Mongolian sauce? That’s what it looked like and tasted like. I did take those bites out of that by the way. She gave us 6, though, and I didn’t want them to go to waste, so Jameson and I took some to our friends that live near by. She couldn’t even eat them, but at least he tried some. Except, when he opened his up, it was bright purple. That was odd.

This one had almost a potato like filling. It didn’t really taste like anything, though. I would think these are suppose to be really good, because my neighbor owns a restaurant nearby. I’m usually not very interested in venturing out to new taste, so for me to eat this was kind of a big deal. I feel really bad, but they only got tasted and then went into the trash. I love that my neighbor was so sweet to make these for us though. I really do like having neighbors that are from so many different places. We learn things all the time from them, and get to have so many new experiences.

*If anyone knows what the heck I ate, please let me know. The black one with coconut was kind of tasty if you just ate the inside. I couldn’t handle the texture of the outside stuff.*