Snow piles up outside the windows, glistening in the moonlight as it tumbles through the air. The house is warm and smells like ginger and clove. She’s been baking all afternoon and now the gingerbread is finally cool and hard as brick. She takes the cookies and the candy and the icing to the table and she nestles her toes under the soft belly of her dog who curls up at her feet. And then she gets to work.