Lakeshore Christmas (30 page)

So, okay, you were kind of left hanging at the last moment there. If you think it’s driving you crazy, how do you suppose I feel? Julian and Logan each have their fans. May the best man win.

Ingredients
(24 cookies)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
   
2. Melt the butter; mix well with sugar and molasses.
   
3. Beat in the egg, then slowly add the rest of the ingredients, mixing well to create a wet dough.
   
4. Line a cookie sheet with foil or parchment.
   
5. Drop the batter by scant teaspoons onto the parchment. Leave plenty of space, because cookies will spread.
   
6. Bake 8-10 minutes, just until the cookies darken.
   
7. Remove parchment from cookie sheet, and let the cookies cool. These cookies are delicious as is, or you can dress them up with a drizzle of lemon icing.
   

Song Suggestion:

I
get by with a little help from my friends—Anjali Banerjee, Carol Cassella, Sheila Roberts, Suzanne Selfors, Elsa Watson, Kate Breslin, Mary Buckham, Lois Faye Dyer, Rose Marie Harris, Patty Jough-Haan, Susan Plunkett and Krysteen Seelen—wonderful writers and eagle-eyed readers.

Thanks to Sherrie Holmes for keeping all my ducks in a row.

Thanks to Margaret O’Neill-Marbury and Adam Wilson of MIRA Books, Meg Ruley and Annelise Robey of the Jane Rotrosen Agency, for invaluable advice and input. Thanks to my publisher and readers for supporting the Lakeshore Chronicles and for inspiring me to return to Avalon again and again.

A very special thank-you and all my love to my daughter Elizabeth, for her help with the recipes and for her marketing expertise. Thanks also to my sister, Lori, for proofreading, and to my mother, Lou, for mothering me no matter how old I get.

My family—the reason for everything—is bigger and more blessed than ever this year. Welcome to the family, Dave.