Baking for Christmas

Today we finished about half of our cookie baking for Christmas. When I was a teenager, my mother did elaborate gift baskets for a long list of people, so the baking was a really, really big job. It seems so piddly now to do only three or four kinds, but that is plenty for us. I haven't been giving lots of cookies away in the past years because it seems like there are way too many sweets circulating already. So we make the things we like the very best of all, and enjoy them at home and with guests.

*Rugelach: cream cheese pastries rolled around homemade jam, chopped walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon.
*Virginia Breedlove's Afternoon Delights (from the Dairy Hollow House Cookbook--best ever!): a thin layer of brownie, topped with minty green buttercream, glazed with chocolate.
*Coconut macaroons.
*Spicy molasses cookies cut out and decorated, of course. We save this batch for last and take a whole afternoon for decorating. So much fun!