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The boy in an oversized white hoodie barrels down the stairs, almost knocking over his father, a man with brown hair and a red track jacket.
"Are we baking now? Are we? Are we?"
"Easy there, Wayner!"
A woman with long blonde hair and a bandanna pokes her head out from the kitchen.
"Everyone's here! Great! We can start now!"
She gestures for the two others to come in, giving them both wide hugs as they do.
Lindsay holds out the recipe book triumphantly and gives it to Wayne. "Read out the ingredients, and I'll get them! If you don't know how to read something…um…your dad can help."
Tyler pauses before shaking his head and deciding that, yeah, he can probably do that.
"Okay! Three…three…four…cups of all-purpose flour."
"Um…"
"That's three-quarters, Wayner."
"Ohhhhh!" Wayne and Lindsay say in unison.
Lindsay pulls out the measuring cup and sticks it into the flour, shaking it until the top is flat, then dumping it in the bowl. One, two, three times. She then sticks the quarter-cup inside and does the same three more times.
"One teaspoon baking powder!"
"We have baking soda, close enough!"
Lindsay riffles through the kitchen cupboards for the supplies, laying them out on the counter as she grabs them.
"One…seconds teaspoon salt?"
"One-half!"
"Done!"
"One one-half cup white sugar!"
"Done!"
"One cup butter, softened!"
"Um…putting it in the microwave, right now!"
"Two large eggs!"
"Done!"
"Two teaspoons vanilla extract!"
"Done!"
"Frosting tubes!"
"Done!"
Lindsay throws three tubes of red, green, and white frosting on the counter.
"Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together! …that's not an ingredient."
Tyler chuckles and places a sieve over the bowl. He takes the spoonfuls of baking soda and salt and dumps them into the flour bowl through the sieve. Lindsay watches over his shoulder.
"Linds, I don't think this is doing anything…"
"The book said to do it, so it's doing something! Little sport, what's the next step?"
"Beat sugar and butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth…how does hitting it make it smooth?"
Lindsay shrugs. She takes the butter out of the bowl, which has melted into a yellow puddle.
"I don't think this counts as softened."
"What's softer than liquid things?"
"...you?" Tyler taps her on the shoulder. Lindsay gasps and nearly spills the entire bowl. She does spill a good bit on her shoes.
"Sorry, babe!"
"No! No, um, you're right! This is…close enough! Probably! I don't think I need to heat more up!"
She dumps the melted butter into the bowl with the sugar. Tyler shoves the mixer in the bowl and turns it on.
"What's the next step?!" Lindsay yells.
"Beat first egg into batter mixture!"
"Okay!" She proceeds to slam the first egg on the side of the bowl and catches the drips in the bowl. Tyler keeps mixing.
"Beat second egg into batter mixture along with vanilla extract!"
She slams the second egg on the side in the same way and then proceeds to pour the first bit of vanilla extract in the spoon.
On the second, she slips on some melted butter and dumps extra in the batter.
"...darn it!"
"It's okay, Linds! We can keep it in there!"
Lindsay beams and dumps the remaining teaspoon into the batter as well.
"Wayner?"
"Add the flour mixture!"
Lindsay dumps the flour mix into the bowl and instantly starts coughing.
"...so…much…"
Wayne runs to the bathroom and sticks his face in the sink.
Tyler appears completely unaffected, aside from his face being covered in flour.
By the time Lindsay's done coughing and Wayne is back, Tyler decides this is probably enough mixing. It's not mixed all the way but is that such a big deal?
Wayne looks at the recipe, and his face drops. "We have to chill it in the fridge for two hours…but I want the cookies now."
Tyler looks at the dough, then at Wayne. "It's cool! We can just do it now!"
"But the recipe…" Lindsay bites her lip, but then sees Wayne on the verge of tears. "Okay. We do it now. What's the next step?"
"Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease two cookie sheets!"
"I'll do that one! Dad can help with the cutting cookies!"
Tyler and Wayne sit down at the kitchen table with rolled-out dough and proceed to cut out…shapes that roughly resemble hockey sticks, hockey players, and snowmen.
When Lindsay looks back at the pile of cookies, she just stares confusedly.
"...we're baking that?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay!" She holds out the cookie sheet for Tyler to put the first batch on. Tyler proceeds to stick them in the oven.
Lindsay's trying to fix up the next batch of cookies when Tyler peeks through the glass of their oven door.
"That looks done already. We should take it out…"
Lindsay stands up and shakes her head. "No, the recipe said to do it for six to eight minutes, and it's not six minutes yet!" Lindsay points at the book. "We have to wait until it is six minutes!"
They stand around, watching, for another minute.
When the timer dings, Tyler opens the oven door, takes a deep breath, and yanks the cookies out of the oven, screaming the whole while.
Well, the pan-sized cookie.
Wayne immediately grabs a fork and starts poking at it.
"Where are the hockey sticks?"
"In there!"
Lindsay quietly doubts there were any hockey sticks in the first place.
Wayne sticks his fork into the cookie and breaks off a piece. He shoves it in his mouth…
…and then promptly spits out a piece of eggshell.
"This doesn't taste like a cookie, eh?"
Tyler groans. Lindsay slaps herself in the face.
Lindsay sets her car keys on the table as she takes her coat off. Wayne is just about to tackle her when he sees the box she's holding and gasps.
"Can I have them now?"
"Um…just let me take my boots off first! And get your dad!"
There's the sound of a mop falling on the floor and a bucket almost spilling over before Tyler gets dragged to the door by the hand. He pumps his fist in the air when he sees the box as well.
"Woohoo!"
"Wait, not yet! We're gonna get snow all over the floor!"
"These are snow cookies! I get them all over the floor anyway!"
Tyler looks at Lindsay confusedly. Lindsay sighs.
"...we talked about this, sport. Don't do that."
"Oh…sorry. Can I have them now?"
"Yep!" Lindsay hands the box to Tyler and proceeds to try unlacing her boots again.
Wayne doesn't even bother going to the kitchen, just sitting himself on the armchair. Neither of his parents bother objecting.
It takes Lindsay several minutes to undo her boots, by which time Tyler has already opened the box and taken out all the snowmen for Wayne.
"So, little sport, um…what did we learn today?" Lindsay ruffles Wayne's hair.
"That if you can't do it, it's okay to ask for help!"
Lindsay looks at Tyler, awestruck. "Whoa…he is smart…"
"Yeah! Good job!" Tyler gives two thumbs up to Wayne.
Lindsay curls up next to Tyler on the couch and whispers into his ear, "We're doing great as parents, right?"
"Yeah! Wayner's happy, we're happy, so it's all good!"
Wayne, meanwhile, does not hear them and continues to bite off the heads of his snowmen cheerfully.