“I’m sure Brinkley would love it. That kid has one hell of a sweet tooth. Maybe we’ll have it as a special treat before bed on Christmas Eve.”
The pizza arrived a few minutes later. Since I didn’t allow Brinkley to take food out of the kitchen, she practically inhaled her dinner so she could get back to the movie.
“Does she know how to pause it?” Bear asked.
“It’s not the same,” Brinkley answered from the living room, causing him to laugh.
“Noted.”
“Is it time to make the goodies yet?” she asked.
“Not yet,” I reassured her and started putting the leftover pizza away.
“Can I help with anything?” he offered.
“Actually, yes, there is something you can do,” I said as a brilliant idea occurred to me. “One second.” I gathered the ingredients I needed and poured the first two into a large bowl. “Can you mix these two? Then, once they’re blended, slowly add this?”
He gave me a curious look, but nodded with a slight grin on his face. “Yeah, I should be able to manage that,” he said and proceeded to make my heart happy when he went to the sink to wash his hands first.
Several minutes passed before Bear turned off the mixer and cleared his throat to get my attention. “Do you have something else I can stir this with? If I keep using the mixer, I’m going to burn up the motor. I can already smell it getting hot.”
I retrieved a wooden spoon, a spatula, and a large plastic spoon and placed them on the counter. “Take your pick.”
He picked up the spatula and went to work on the mixture. “Did you say all of this?” he asked and pointed to the remaining powdered sugar.
“Yep,” I said and quickly turned around to hide the smile on my face. I’d been making the same recipe for years. I was well versed in how difficult it was to mix in the last cup of sugar, which was why I used to pawn the task off on Russell.
“What’s next?” Bear asked when he finished with the mixture.
I took it and placed it in the freezer. “This needs to chill for at least thirty minutes before we can do anything with it. But,” I said as I reached into the refrigerator, “the dough I made last night is ready to bake.”
“What kind of dough?”
“Gingerbread.”
“I love gingerbread cookies.”
“So do I, but you’re not supposed to eat this kind.”
“Why not?”
“The recipe’s meant for building gingerbread houses. Technically, there’s no reason you couldn’t eat it, but it’s hard as a rock. You could seriously break a tooth.”
He laughed and ran his tongue over his teeth. “Thanks for the warning.”
We continued talking and making Christmas treats. Brinkley darted back and forth between decorating cookies and watching her favorite Christmas movies.
After she’d been unusually quiet for a while, I peeked around the corner to find her asleep in the middle of the living room floor.
“She lasted longer than I thought she would,” I observed.
“Do you want me to carry her to her bed?” Bear offered.
I shook my head. “She’s a sound sleeper. Noises and lights don’t bother her. But, if she’s moved, she’s awake and not going back to sleep for at least an hour. So, I’ll get her up a little while before I’m ready to go to bed.”
“I should probably get going. I didn’t realize it’d gotten so late.”
I glanced at the clock on the stove, surprised by the time. It was later than I thought, but I wasn’t ready for him to leave. “You have to at least wait until the dirty snowballs are finished so you can take some home. Those cannot and will not stay in my house for any length of time.”