But first, let's rewind to Christmas Day, mid-afternoon. The Bogas were rejoicing that the number of votes had already surpassed last year's record. As of 3pm, we had already captured 224 votes, up from last year's 190, with over half a day to go. Certainly our cousins' (the Liberts) participation and Facebook posts had expanded our voting audience, and support from our DC contingent was coming through loud and clear. Maybe this was the year our cookies would finally achieve domestic fame, and the Today Show would be calling us to appear on Thursday's 9am segment!
When the Liberts arrived around 4pm, the Bogas gathered around the computer to refresh the poll numbers so Ellen, Barry, Michael & Adam could see results for the first time. Jamie refreshed the polldaddy page, and her heart immediately sank when she saw the message "your poll has 0 votes at this time." What?! We had already set a record!! Knowing that Doug had just been on the computer moments prior, she immediately turned to him and demanded to know what he had done. Dad said he had just "Reset" the poll so he could see up to date results. Hoping Dad simply meant he had "REFRESHED" the webpage, Jamie asked again, loudly, what he could possibly mean. Dad repeated, he just Reset the poll!
Here is what Dad did:
What? That's not the same as Refreshing the page? NO DAD. IT'S NOT THE SAME THING. Nevermind the helpful bold font that describes exactly what will happen if you do hit that button.
After 15 minutes of some, um, "excitement", we all regained our composure and realized it was not the end of the world. Since the Bogas obsessively REFRESHED the results every 10 minutes to see who was winning, we had a pretty good idea of the most recent numbers, at least for the top 5 cookies. We all agreed that we'd continue using these counts, which we deemed accurate with 95% confidence:
Initial Results as of 4pm on Christmas Day ("Phase 1" of voting):
1. CookieHenge - 36 votes
T-2: DC's Best Christmas Gift & Preggers Kate Middleton - 24 votes each
T-4: A Monster's Inc Christmas & Binder Full of Holiday Women - 20 votes each
5. Bogas in a Boat with a Bengal Tiger: Life of PiBoga - 14 votes
Over the next 18 hours, we captured an additional 105 votes, bringing the poll total to an impressive 329 votes, a Boga Bake-Off record! So now, to the results and the artists who created this year's cookies...
CookieHenge retained its first place position, gaining an additional 19 votes (most of any cookie in the second phase of voting) for a grand total of 55 votes. Leave it to our cousin Adam Libert, a mechanical engineering grad student at MIT, to break barriers in the Boga Bake-Off and create the first-ever 3D cookie. Made of scraps from a discarded cookie design, the lifelike Stonehenge sculptures and standing "people" (i.e. bear sprinkles) won the voting audience over:
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| 1st Place: CookieHenge by Adam, 55 votes |
The most interesting movements in phase 2 were between Robin's DC's Best Christmas Gift, and Jamie's Kate Middleton and Binders Full of Holiday Women cookies. During phase 2, Binders made a strong run capturing 16 additional votes, the second most of any cookie. BUT, with Robin's RG3 cookie gaining 14 more votes, it was able to retain its second place position. Robin also Tweeted RG3 to appeal for his vote and a RT, but alas, no luck. Our DC friends and family showed enough support to grant Robin's cookie the title of runner-up in the Boga Bake-Off:
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| 2nd Place: DC's Best Christmas Gift by Robin, 38 votes |
Jamie's Preggers Kate Middleton needs a Porcelain Throne and Binders Full of Holiday Women cookies tied for Fourth place, with a total of 36 votes each. Isn't the vomit so beautifully detailed and lifelike?
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| T-4th: Preggers Kate Middleton Needs a Porcelain Throne by Jamie, 36 votes |
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| T-4th: Binder Full of Holiday Women by Jamie, 36 votes |
What about Mom's Boga in a franchise? As you may recall, Bogas in a Balloon won 1st place last year, but this year's Bogas in a Boat with a Bengal Tiger: Life of PiBoga could not maintain the dynasty. While the concept was certainly cute, the Bogas looked a little messier than years past. It eked out 26 votes for a 5th place finish:
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| 5th Place: Bogas in a Boat with a Bengal Tiger: Life of PiBoga by Mom, 26 votes |
Here are the remaining cookies, grouped by approximate number of votes and voting distribution from phase 2.
Had strong showings, threatened to place in the top 5 (tweets were not returned from @MonstersInc or from the creators of South Park):
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| A Monster's Inc Christmas by Robin |
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| Respect my Cookie Authoritay by Jamie |
Had some votes, but were never really contenders:
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| #MerryChristmas by Robin |
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| No Baggage Fees by Adam |
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| OCD Star by Ellen |
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| Liberts in a Tree by Ellen |
Hardly any votes, but good effort guys, good effort:
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| 12.21.12 by Adam |
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| Jackson Pollock by Tim (Tim maintains 12.21.12 split his votes and confused his voting contingent) |
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| Use your Imagination by Dad |
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| Santa Gone Skydivin' by Michael |
So, that's a wrap! Thanks for reading this very long blog post, and for participating in the drama that was this year's Boga Bake-Off. See you all in 2013 :)
