Saturday's Storyteller: "Christmas is over, but the cookies linger."
by Belinda Roddie Christmas is over, but the cookies linger. Look, there are endless plates of them, tins brimming with goodies. Peppermint bark and flour-nosed dough. Ginger spice and apple cider infused treats. Egg nog bars and cinnamon swirls. Hazelnut triangles and halfway decent chocolate fudge. And of course, the frosting-clothed men and women who are devoured before they truly experience post-baked life. We eat them, yet the supply seems to last forever. Even more arrive, to boot. We stare down fig bread and fruit biscuits and Santa-faced brioche with fresh strawberry and apricot jam. We massage our tongues in the set marmalade and let the shortbread melt like winter snow against our hot and frantic lips. Our teeth shiver from the subsequent bursts of sugar, as we quaff sprinkles on edible Christmas trees, snowflakes, ornaments, bells, and miniaturized Santas ill-prepared to face their digestible doom. Everything is sweet. Everything is buttery. Everything is highly calori