Once all those cookies are mixed, rolled, baked, cooled, decorated and sorted into boxes…

They must be delivered. 

This takes several hours, more if you chance upon someone and take a few minutes to chat.  This year, I am trying to squeeze it in before we run a few errands.  It all has a deadline, too, because the Christmas tree place closes at 4 PM.  (I’m not losing that family tradition with my kids to the craziness of the year—we have our masks at the ready!)  This also means that the Christmas decorations have to come up from the basement, furniture has to be moved around in the living room, and everything put out in its holiday place.  And there is the family Christmas card photo we must get in before the oldest heads back to his college for the last ten days of class…  

Somewhere in the exhaustion of the madness of cramming all this into just a few days, I begin to question if the cookie project was really worth it?  Do people want this sort of thing this year?  I had asked a few and received resounding YES answers.  Of course, people met me at their doors with huge smiles and claimed to be very happy about the cookies. 

But I still had my doubts.  It’s just a different year.  Maybe people don’t want to be reminded of something “normal”.  Maybe it would be better if I had done something different instead.

As I was pondering this, I received a text from a friend.  She didn’t have any qualms about them!  “Thank you for the cookies—as always, they are delicious, and included all the ones that we have come to love.  I did find myself feeling extra grateful for the tradition that it represented this weird year.” 

So there it was:  my silver lining.  Turns out that my efforts to maintain a tradition meant a lot to someone else!