Sometimes a person can get a little stressed during the holiday season. I am one of those people. Some individuals just can’t handle the pressure of shopping, writing Christmas letters, wrapping gifts, attending Christmas programs, traveling to visit the relatives, etc. I like all of those Christmas activities. My holiday stress comes from baking. My mother and I used to make 15-20 different kinds of cookies and bars and candy: fudge, peanut butter fudge, maple fudge, toffee, divinity, caramels, cappuccino caramels, sugar cookies, maple sandwich cookies, peanut blossoms, Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Chunk Molasses Chewies, pecan tarts, candy cane cookies, peppernuts, popcorn balls, turtles, almond bark, macaroons, etc. Each year we might abandon one recipe and add another. We distributed plates of goodies to all of our friends, relatives, and co-workers. I gain 10 pounds every Christmas, because each time I bake something, I have to conduct a taste test (several times) not only the finished product, but the dough, the batter, the frosting, the chocolate chips, the pecans, the coconut, etc. Once I read that if you chew gum, you won’t be tempted to taste everything. I tried it. But let me ask you. Can a piece of gum stand up to the temptation of Martha Stewart’s Chocolate Chunk Molasses Chewies? Not in my lifetime. Another year I tried taping my mouth shut with Scotch Brand packing tape. That worked the one baking day I used it. And I didn’t need it for subsequent baking days because when I removed the tape, certain parts of my lips went with it. Pain works. Last year we decided to cut back. We limited our baking efforts to 12 recipes, and it worked out well. We don’t have as many friends and relatives anymore. Many have died or moved or are on the low-carb diet. I may cut back even more for 2004. Maybe I’ll make just one or two of my favorites, eat them all myself, and gaining that 10 pounds won’t be so much work. You can also relieve holiday stress by escaping with a good novel. The Loop Group, by Larry McMurtry might do the trick. Maggie Clary’s three grown daughters arrive at her Hollywood home to try and make sense of her life. This isn't easy, first of all because their own lives are a mess, and secondly, Maggie thinks her own life makes perfect sense. She is self-supporting, running a successful "loop group" dubbing movies. She has a boyfriend (admittedly he is her psychoanalyst, and very old), and leads a busy life that intersects with lots of interesting, (all right) bizarre people. Still, her daughters cause her to have a few second thoughts, and these are reinforced when her best friend, Connie, seeks an escape from her own world of complex and difficult relationships with men. Since neither high-end nor low-end shopping seems to relieve their angst, Maggie comes up with the idea of driving to visit her Aunt Cooney's ranch near Electric City, Texas. This road trip will end by changing their lives. Alternately hilariously funny and profoundly sad, "Loop Group" is a joy to read. "Black Wind," by Clive Cussler. In the waning days of World War II, the Japanese tried a last desperate kamikaze mission, this one carried out by two submarines bound for the West Coast of the United States, their cargo a revolutionary new strain of biological virus. Neither sub made it to the designated target. But that does not mean they were lost. Someone knows about the subs and what they bore and has an extraordinary plan in store for the prize inside — a scheme that could reshape the world as we know it. All that stands in the way are three people: a marine biologist named Summer, a marine engineer named Dirk, and their father, Dirk Pitt, the new head of NUMA. Pitt has faced devastating enemies before and has even teamed up with his children to track them down. But never has he looked upon the face of pure evil ... until now.