Page 34 of Merry Christmas, Cowboy

Little did Garrett know when he woke up this morning that he’d be shopping for cookie cutters, icings, and sprinkles this afternoon. And when they returned from the ranch market, he was loaded down with everything he needed to bake sugar cookies.

The kitchen was only half done, but they had what they needed now, a refrigerator, an oven, and enough counter space to make it all happen.

Garrett read the recipe off his phone, measured everything out, and then let Cody dump the ingredients in and stir. Under a watchful eye, Cody pressed the digital buttons to preheat the oven. He got a kick out of that. Then they tackled rolling out the dough.

The rolling wasn’t going too well. Cody’s face was dotted with flour, his hair was streaked white and his plaid shirt definitely needed a wash, but he was having a great time.

Once the dough was flattened out, Garrett grabbed the cookie cutters. “That’s about the best we can do, Code. How about we cut out the cookies now.”

“I get the snowman!” Cody announced. “And the star!”

“Okay, I’ll do the bell and the Santa.”

Cody did his very best, cutting out the cookies with as much precision a six-year-old could muster and once they were finished, they placed them carefully on parchment paper and put the pan into the oven.

“We did it.”

“Right, we sure did.”

“What do we do now, Uncle Garrett?”

“Well, I guess we wait for the cookies to bake and cool. In the meantime, you can pick out what decorations you want to put on your cookies.”

“I already know which one I want to give to Miss Russell.”

“You do?”

“Uh-huh. I’m making her a special one, ’cause she’s nice. You like her, don’t you, Uncle Garrett?”

“Oh, uh. Yes, I like her.”

Cody bobbed his head up and down. “I like her too. She’s fun.”

His nephew hit the nail on the head. She was fun and nice and probably still in love with her ex-fiancé.

“Are you making her a special one too?” Cody asked.

“I think I’ll leave that up to you, Cody. She’s really going to like the cookies you decorate for her.”

“When are the cookies gonna be done?”

Garrett glanced at the oven timer. “Looks like eight more minutes.”

“That long?”

“Sometimes, good things are worth waiting for.”

“Like the snow? I’ve been waiting a long time and when it snows, it’ll be a good thing.”

Garrett held his breath and his tongue. He was always warning the boy not to get his hopes up but he didn’t want to spoil the moment. “Hey, Code. I think these red and green sprinkles are pretty cool. I’m gonna use them on my cookies. I think bells should have sprinkles.”

“And stars too.”

“Right.”

“Uncle Garrett, what if… sprinkles are really colored raindrops?”

“That’d be neat.”

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