Cookies and superstition

We do have a little superstitious streak in our family; I think it is an offshoot of over-earnestness - we are so good at seeing the merits of both sides of a potential decision, we give up, and let some random criteria dictate the way. My brother, since he's not quite so over-earnest as, say, me and my older son, confines most of his superstitious decision-making to sports.

I, on the other hand, am all too prone to predict the future by the way various cookie kinds turn out (at least it's not entrails), or to NOT bake a certain a kind at a certain time, or decide whether or not to add a newly-tried-out cookie kind to the yearly pantheon of cookies, because of some portent or other.

And I got a little backup to these beliefs by getting feedback from the bro on my recent Seattle trip, on how well they liked various components of their last year's box - he said "make less kinds - your heart was not in some of these" - so obviously my feelings are coming through in the baked goods (at least to thems that can hear ... and I'm blithely deleting kinds from my list, that I did not love dearly enough, per the bro's advice)

So operating on available signs and portents, I am cautiously predicting this is going to be a better than last year cookie season - I had a minor setback with the Hootie bars, but that has been corrected; mixed signals on the jam cookies - I think I rolled them a little thick (they're good that way, though) so I did not have as great a yield as last year, and I burned the pan of star cutouts, but the jam set really well; the ruggelach are done and gorgeous; and I did not overbake the Biberli (Almond filled spice). And, for a clincher, this year's Thanksgiving dinner went way better than last year's. Knock Wood.

I set up a cookie production slide show, and will add pictures as I progress.