A winter’s afternoon, a group of women bake some cookies, bring them all to a friend’s table, drink some punch, eat some cheese, eat some cookies, cluster in twos and threes in heartfelt conversation, play a game, laugh and laugh and laugh, eat some cookies, drink some coffee, laugh and talk and play some more, then circle the table filling their tins with an exquisite assortment of holiday treats: vanilla creme sandwich cookies, Kahlua and chocolate wafers, Earl Grey shortbread, Chocolate oatmeal Snowdrops, chocolate curry candy, red velvet cookies, gingersnap candy, Aspen Bark candy, chocolate nut cranberry clusters, Butternuts, lemon macaroons, Ghirardelli chocolate cookies, almond macaroons, cranberry-white chocolate-pecan cookies, chocolate meringues, peppermint meringues, and, oops, not pictured, cranberry bark, marijuana gingersnaps, orange blossom balls, and almond-quinoa shortbread. They fill their tins with treats and their hearts with hugs and set off into the cold dusk as the waxing moon rises on a snow-sparkled landscape. Things that can’t be beat.