Gingerbread Valentines? Why not? If someone you love happens to L-O-V-E gingerbread, then gingerbread cookies are the best sweet treat you can give them for Valentine’s Day.

It’s easy to feel invisible as your social interactions shrink to fit into a small box inside a 40-minute Zoom meeting. As thankful as I am to be able to connect online in this way with colleagues, friends, and family, I yearn for more. Surprisingly, my wish was granted by doing something for someone else. In return for my help, I have been rewarded with hours of exchanging ideas, life experiences and hopes for the future. I found out for myself the truth of the saying that “it's better to give than to receive.”

Since I didn’t have to clean my house for company this year, I baked up a storm and mailed a variety of cookies to those I love. These Raspberry-filled Christmas Sandwich Cookies were a big hit with everyone. The homemade raspberry jam filling was the perfect tart complement to the sweet, buttery cookie. Yum. Double yum.

Thanksgiving was a little bit unusual this year for us — as I’m sure it was for everyone else in the world. So the cookies had to be quirky, too. This little guy was the perfect addition to our dessert table, which also consisted of other new things like gingerbread pudding cake and chocolate mousse bars. No pie? Nope. Not this year. You see, the only kind of pie we all like is banana cream pie, which just didn’t seem like the right pie for the occasion. Enter this goofy-looking turkey cookie to save the day by providing a smile and a sugar rush.

The liquid amber trees in our yard are starting to drop leaves and I find great satisfaction in raking them up ... at least at the beginning of the season. I know I’ll grow weary of it in a week or two, but the first signs of autumn always give me joy. These beautiful, messy trees also inspired me to create cutout cookies and multi-colored Autumn Leaves are the result. I had so much fun making them and decorating them. I must admit that when it comes to leaves...baking them is more satisfying than raking them.