Chicken salad made special for Christmas, spiced with cardamom, studded with cranberries and brightened with fresh dill, bound together by a light orange-scented dressing. Perfect for a quick sandwich before an school Christmas concert, a light salad to fuel an afternoon of shopping, even tucked into mini tarts for a cookie swap. So will Christmas cards fall to the wayside like hand-written letters and picture postcards from far-away lands? If so, call me in the vanguard for the last time I got to sending Christmas cards was ten years ago even if some years I did harbor good intentions. "January would be a much more sensible month," I'd bargain with myself, "when life isn't so busy." Still, the dog likes the mid-day break, even in winter. "Wanna check the mailbox?" I ask and she usually beats me to the back door, where we take the long way around just to breathe in unfurnaced air and stretch our faces to the low angle of the sun. But

Who else loves to spend time before Christmas up to your elbows in flour? If so, this one's for you! It's my collection of practical Christmas cookie-baking tips, packed with ideas for new and experienced bakers both. PS Facebook & Pinterest users, if you love Kitchen Parade, be sure to "like" and "pin" this page! More and more, search engines and even real-live human beings rely on social media indicators to identify the best sources of trusted information. ALANNA aka CERTIFIABLE COOKIE FIEND So will it surprise you to learn that I am crazy-stupid for Christmas cookies?! One year, my sister’s then-young sons stacked all the cookie tins they could squeeze between their chins and outstretched arms – and then started to count, not cookies, not dozens of cookies, but different “kinds” (yes, kinds) of cookies. Five. Ten. Fifteen. Twenty. Thirty. Laughing so hard at their crazy aunt, somewhere in the 30s the boys lost count and loaded cookies