Scent Notes: Warm pfeffernusse cookies: orange, cardamom, allspice, black pepper, anise, gourmet vanilla, buttery cookie dough, a pinch of salt, and powdered sugar.

Linda was proud of her great-grandmother’s pfeffernusse cookie recipe and made them every year, without fail, for Christmas. It didn’t matter that she didn’t particularly like the taste of them, it was the principle of the matter: You make pfeffernusse at Christmas, every year, because it’s a family tradition. End of story. She didn’t make the rules. Plus, she loved the way they smelled, all sugar and spice, and she had won her office-wide Christmas cookie bake-off for the last four years with these cookies. If she won this year (and she intended to), she’d be the first ever employee to win five years in a row. It didn’t matter to her that in the days leading up to the contest, between working overtime (by choice), preparing her own home for Christmas, wrapping gifts, taking care of her kids and husband, and the general day-to-day chores of running the household and keeping everything absolutely spotless, she got virtually no sleep. Some might call her a perfectionist, or extremely Type A, but she didn’t care. She liked to win. She HAD to win. The thrill of victory, and a massive amount of coffee, kept her going this time of year.

It was now the night before the contest, and she was making her sixth batch of pfeffernusse, and her third pot of coffee. The cookies just kept turning out not *quite* good enough. They were delicious, even though she didn’t love them, but her overactive, must-win-at-all-costs brain kept telling her they weren’t tasty enough to win, and that just wouldn’t fly with her. Gulping another cup of extremely hot coffee, she put the sixth batch in the oven and started to work on the seventh batch, just in case. “Quitters never win,” she said through gritted teeth as she started measuring the spices yet again. “And winners never quit, dammit.” Her kitchen was a wreck, her dining room table was nearly overflowing with pfeffernusse, and she’d maybe have time for an eighth batch before she had to begin cleaning, packaging the cookies, and getting ready for work, but it didn’t matter. Soon, she’d be the bake-off champion, and her kids would get to have cookies for breakfast. For weeks.

Scent Notes: Warm pfeffernusse cookies: orange, cardamom, allspice, black pepper, anise, gourmet vanilla, buttery cookie dough, a pinch of salt, and powdered sugar.