Author: Emilie Kretschmar
Sweeten Alumni House is quite literally a sweet place to work. This holiday season we have been inundated with a plethora of brightly colored packages all bearing delicious temptations. My office is in a strategic location- right next to the copy machine and across from the second-floor counter where all the sweets eventually end up. Thanks to my close proximity, I have been able to document a week of Sweeten’s sweets.
FRIDAY
President Amy Gutmann stays up late into the night to bake cookies for the entire campus. Just kidding, but it was awfully thoughtful of her to send these to us from Famous 4th Street Cookies.
MONDAY
Monday was off to a tasty start with holiday packages from vendors including a popcorn three-way, chocolate-covered pretzels, assorted chocolates, and Scottish shortbread cookies. It ended with even more sweets, when Sweeten hosted a baby shower complete with a chocolate/vanilla marble cake.
TUESDAY
After staff slept off their sugar comas, it was back to work on Tuesday with homemade Christmas cookies from our own Liz Pinnie. Note the beautiful (and delicious) spritz cookies. And what would a day at Sweeten be without chocolaty, peanut-buttery goodness wrapped in colorful holiday foil? With a little help from our work study students, we devoured the entire basket of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups too.
WEDNESDAY
Another delicious popcorn tin followed by a party for December birthdays. Lynn Carroll made cupcakes!
THURSDAY
Thursday was the best treat of all. My little dog, Axl, came to visit in his holiday bandana. He loves visiting campus. Not only is there a lot of green space for him to romp, but there are tons of squirrels to chase. Axl spent his lunch break outside saying hello to passers-by and trying to chase Penn’s furry critters.
FRIDAY and BEYOND
We are all at home with our friends and family, enjoying our own holiday treats and traditions, as I hope, were you. Happy holidays from all of us at Sweeten!