I felt like 5 hours was long for a cookie exchange as well. I told my husband I thought maybe 2 hours, and he agreed. I have lived in this part of Georgia before and I have known this friend since then. I went to 2 other cookie exchanges at her house in those prior years, and I don't remember it being that long and drawn-out. But it was kind of her doing, and I'm wondering if she did it on purpose to keep people there because her husband had gone out of town and she didn't want to be alone.
The cookie exchange started at 1. She had made a lasagna. I was a tiny bit late getting there. She wanted me to bring my son and we got there at about 1:10. Everyone was sitting around talking. At 2:30, everyone was still just sitting around talking. My son was blunt and asked her when we were going to get to the cookie exchange, and she said after we eat lasagna. But he started getting restless, so I said I was going to take him home and come back. I actually didn't want to eat that late because I'd had lunch at 11 not knowing there would be a meal there. And then my husband was grilling burgers for dinner at 6. I got back and she didn't even take the lasagna out of the oven until after 3. So, I guess she didn't even put it in until 1? Some people hadn't eaten since breakfast and were starving and said, "Finally, can we eat now?" And she said we had to wait for the garlic bread that she was just then putting in the oven. I don't think we ate until at least 3:30! I didn't want to be rude, but I barely ate anything because it was so late and I knew I had dinner in just a few hours. Even after we ate, she was in the kitchen doing dishes while we just sat around talking some more.
Another of her friends cut to the chase and said, "We need to get on with this cookie exchange." Literally everyone pitched in to get it going because I don't think any of us really wanted to just be sitting around socializing for that long. So it took that long basically because we couldn't leave without doing the cookie exchange and we all had to wait on this lasagna to even do the cookie exchange. She has some very blunt friends who told her it was taking too long.
But anyway, I don't know. I know it was kind of bad of her as a hostess to do things like that. But I also know that she was having a hard time because her husband wasn't there. And he wasn't there because his family invited him to a party at their house on purpose because she was doing her cookie exchange and they didn't want her there. So, I don't think she wanted to be alone yesterday.
But, yes, I brought home some great cookies! One cool thing was that there were no 2 cookies that were the same. I have some no-bake rice krispy chocolate cookie, chocolate chip, cinnamon nut, my own dark chocolate peppermint, chocolate cinnamon, bourbon balls (my husband is devouring those!), white chocolate peanut butter, and brownie cookies. I have to watch myself so I don't eat half of them.