Overwhelmed with Excitement & In Tears with Gratitude

Granted this is supposed to be my blog about cookies, not my personal stories that go on my personal blog, but this is so cookie related, that I MUST post it here (not sure that there's anyone reading it anyway).  This evening my husband and I were being bad, as we always are, having dinner in the living room watching something on Hulu when I noticed the UPS truck slow down in front of our house, but knew it wasn't stopping here because neither of us had ordered anything. I then heard a door close, so I hopped up off the sofa- I'm a total Gladys Kravitz when I hear noises outside - to look out the front window. I saw the UPS man heading for the front porch with a large box and then heard him say, "UPS," as he quickly knocked and exited the porch, leaving the package. I opened the door and saw a huge box addressed to me directly from a seller of something. I was so confused and swore to my husband that I'd not ordered anything. I nudged the box with one arm and realized it was quite heavy and that I wouldn't be able to get it with my dinner plate in my other hand. The only thing I could think was that I've been repeatedly entering giveaways for a Kitchen-Aid mixer on any and every site I can find for the last few months, but I also knew I'd never received a winning notification from any of them, so I figured that couldn't be it. 

The hubs brought the box in and I grabbed a pair of scissors to cut the tape. After moving the extraneous packaging from the top of the box, what did I find?  You guessed it!!!  That red Kitchen-Aid stand mixer I've had my eyes on for a couple of years now, but have just never been able to justify.  I was beside myself, but still couldn't figure out from where it had come.  Finally I located a packing slip and saw the note that it was a GIFT from my longest-time friend that I'm still in contact with. Prior to the advent of Facebook, we talked a couple of times per year on each other's birthdays and always recalled the many nights we'd spent the night at each other's houses as kids, but rarely saw one another, even though we always easily picked up where we left off. Even though we live several states away from one another now, through Facebook in the last several years we've been able to catch up and have great conversations (and lots of those really catty ones you can only have with certain people).  Even though we've never forgotten each other's birthday since I was in 3rd grade and she in the 4th, we've never given gifts like that to one another, so I was immediately just stunned to tears because I was so touched that she knew how much I wanted that mixer!

I really cannot explain the spectrum of emotions that were drowning me for over an hour, other than to say I was completely overwhelmed.  Of course, I immediately called her and just couldn't say thank you enough times.  Her response was that she knew I'd had a really tough year - my dad died last April and I still can't talk about it without bawling and I've had some scary health things going on in the last 6 months as well (although I think all is well now, but to be told point blank with no care or concern from a doctor that I could be permanently blind as soon as the next morning really did more damage to me than any of the actual problems I was having) - and she just wanted to do something special for me as an early birthday present and that she was so impressed with what she'd seen me do thus far that she thought I absolutely needed it.  Holy cow, I am so excited and touched and just overcome and overwhelmed with emotions!!  (I can't believe I actually just used the phrase "Holy cow!")

So here's where I need help from anyone who might be reading this. Of course, she gets some cookies pronto!  I know I'll do those fabulous chocolate cookies from LilaLoa and some of the best sugar cookies from SugarBelle, but with my limited skill set as of yet, I need ideas for some really great looking thank you cookies that I would be able to pull off and them still look good. I've seen lots of cute things on FB and Pinterest, but would love some other suggestions as well. Thanks for your help!!!!

Off now to go make some icing in my new mixer - once I figure out how to work it!!