Page 107 of A Very Naughty Christmas

“Why don’t we bring the gingerbread cookies and the gingerbread house over to the table, while we wait for the water to heat up.”

“All right!”

I grabbed one of the baking sheets, while Daddy brought two.

I sat at the kitchen table as he brought the gingerbread house kit over to me.

“So, what do you want to start with? The men or the house?”

I looked at him, shocked. “There are gingerbread women too, not just men!”

“You’re right. I’m sorry, sweetie. So, do you want to start with the house or the gingerbread men and women?” He added extra emphasis when he said the ‘men and women.’

“The women!”

“Let’s have this half be women and the other be the men,” he declared, making two piles of six each.

I picked one of the girls up first and looked at the naked cookie, trying to figure out how I wanted to decorate her.

I put a strand of red licorice for her hair and a tiny piece for her smile. Then I put two small M&Ms for her eyes and gumdrops for her button shirt. She looked very pretty.

“She’s done,” I declared, holding her up for my daddy to inspect.

“She looks very pretty, honey, but what about her pants?”

I looked down at the cookie and back up at him, trying to figure out what to say. He was right that women should wear pants, but pants wouldn’t look good with the outfit I had picked out for my girl. Finally, the answer came to me.

“She’s wearing a pajama shirt. She’s like me; she wears a long shirt and a pair of panties to bed.”

“You mean, she wears her papa’s shirts to bed, instead of her pajamas?”

“Yep!” I said, nodding enthusiastically.

“Then you should probably make a papa gingerbread man.”

That was such a smart idea! There couldn’t be a little girl cookie without a daddy cookie.

“I’ll do that now.”

I grabbed another blank cookie. I took a piece of licorice and took a bite out of it so he could have short hair.

Placing the short string of licorice on top, I then reached for three gumdrops to put on his chest. Those were going to be buttons, for his button-up shirt. I gave the gingerbread two M&Ms for his eyes and four M&Ms for his mouth. Finally, I broke apart a Hershey’s chocolatebar and used the small pieces of chocolate for the daddy’s pants.

“What do you think of this one? This is my gingerbread’s papa.”

“He looks like a very nice guy.”

“Yeah, except if his little girl misbehaves, then her daddy has to be super firm with her and give her a punishment.”

Daddy laughed as the kettle began to whistle. “It sounds like our water is done. Keep decorating, sweetie. I’ll bring you hot chocolate.”

I grabbed another gingerbread cookie and decided that this one was going to be another boy. I gave him pretty much the same outfit as the first one. A girl could only be so creative.

“Thank you,” I muttered, not bothering to look up when a mug of hot chocolate was set down next to me.

I continued decorating, giving my hot chocolate some time to cool. I had learned early on that I couldn’t drink it right away or else I would burn my mouth and that hurt really bad.

After I had finished six more cookies, I finally took a sip of my drink. He had put extra whipped cream on top, my favorite.

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