When it came to Christmas cookies in my family, there were traditions upheld out of the sheer belief that we needn’t make any new cookies because the ones we made year after year had risen to the top of the cookie food chain, and were clearly superior to all other cookies, hence their being elevated to a Christmas cookie, from just an any-old-time-of-year cookie.  Some of these cookies required a good deal of extra labor, but they were not overly complex endeavors.  In fact, what made them so impressive was their simplicity.  The end result is something that requires work, but is deceptively elegant in ingredients and flavors. Last year, tsp’s first Christmas season, I introduced you to the greatest cookie recipe ever devised, and it…