THERE REALLY IS A Christmas cookie club and I was the cookie virgin in 2000 and have been a member ever since. Even though there are twelve women who meet every year, the women described in these pages are not them. As far as I know, none of us has had a secret extramarital affair for more than a decade, or has a friend making love with her father, or has a home in foreclosure. We’ve had babies, adopted babies, moved out of town, had much younger lovers, been cheated on, gotten married and divorced, struggled with financial issues, been single moms, recovered from our parents’ death, from our own cancer. Yes, seven out of twelve of us have survived cancer. Amazing!! Terrifying!!

There is a head cookie bitch, Marybeth Bayer, who started the cookie club. Her unbelievable social and organizational skills as well as her terrific hostessing and cooking are the soul of our club and the inspiration not only for the setting of this book but for other aspects of my life. The rules for this club are rules she devised and every year she keeps us anticipating the party as one of the highlights of the holiday season and the entire year. We start joking and thinking of our recipes and packaging at the height of summer. Really! I borrowed her brilliant white hair and blue eyes for Marnie as well as her home, which I envisioned for this fictional cookie party as it is for our actual one. Charlene is based on a real woman, Daphne Mead-Derbyshire, whose loving and peaceful spirit in spite of trauma is an example to us all. The real Charlene used the gift of her son’s death to become an ordained interfaith minister. Tracy’s email message was actually written by Karin Blazier and so captured her happy, funny spirit that I couldn’t resist borrowing it as well as her penchant for using a lipstick kiss as her signature. Each one of us is amazing; luckily, some of us have not been tried as much as others to learn our own mettle.

Some of the incidents here are true; for example, one of us really did the stand-up comedy routine about the nuts. We really do give one-thirteenth of our labor to charity and for over a decade it has been a hospice. We’re aware that giving to others is another way to give to ourselves. Especially in these times, generosity, one another, and an optimistic spirit will get us through.

The cookie recipes have been used in our club. And we have at least a hundred more. Yes, we repeat our favorite recipes. The recipes in this book were culled from grandmothers, friends, clients, the Internet, or various cookbooks and magazines too long ago to be remembered.