Of all the holiday cookies out there – from molasses to crescents to thumbprints to gingerbread to classic decorated sugar cookies – there is none more magical than the linzer cutout. For me, I think that’s partly because I have such clear memories of making them growing up, perched on a stool to reach the counter, with my mom and sister. And there is just something beautiful about how their red centers shine jewel-like through the frame of pristine white powdered sugar. There isn’t a more perfect cookie for a holiday gift.

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Every year around this time I find myself falling into the same pattern, the one where I lose focus for one second and it goes from being Labor Day to Christmas Day in the blink of an eye. At that point, I look around and wonder why I didn’t make cookies this year, or appropriately compile a Christmas list or do a thousand other festive things I’d definitely planned to do but failed to allocate time for. This year, I have a packed schedule for the next 6 weeks that includes: hosting Thanksgiving for the first time, taking a 6-day trip to London in early December and organizing a festive dinner party for 10 in the middle of the month, on an ever-tricky Friday night. And I’m determined to do it all.

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I know it looks like I’ve vanished, but something had to give. On top of the predictably unpredictable December insanity at work (a December IPO? The audacity!), I managed to plan a holiday party which, of course, I unwittingly scheduled at the end of one of my worst weeks on record. I honestly wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull it off, but with a detailed minute-by-minute spreadsheet (thanks, PR world, for the rollout training), a trusty co-hostess, label writer and furniture arranger extraordinaire, and a heavy dose of willpower (and undereye concealer), I did it – and I’ve got all the recipes to show for it.

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