About

Years ago, I started a personal New Year’s Day tradition. I’d gather up all the leftover holiday cookies, take them on a long walk in nature, and leave them there.

It was a practical measure. It didn’t seem right to start a new year eating last year’s cookies, so the cookies had to go. Releasing them into nature seemed like the best solution, sort of a “circle of life” thing.

Starting the new year with a nature walk, getting some fresh air and taking pictures of cookies in trees was really pleasant, and after a couple of New Year’s “cookie release events” the walk itself became the point.

Eventually I started to call this tradition “Gingerpendence Day”, the day when all the cookies that survived the holidays are given their freedom.

But do you want to hear something weird?

Whenever I released cookies, if I came back the next day, they were always gone!

I remember hearing nursery rhymes as a kid about how fast gingerbread people are, and how they like to run away, so I assume that’s what happened. That as soon as my back was turned, they ran off to start new lives. I know it seems unlikely, but it was the only explanation I could think of.

This book, “The Gingerfolk Ball”, is my attempt at explaining this Gingerpendence Day miracle.