Quote:
Prompt 12 (Little Helpers) : You’ve acquired all the ingredients to make your favorite holiday treat and you’re prepared for a busy day of baking tomorrow. When you go to bed, everything is neatly arranged so you can get started bright and early. When you wake, you smell the distinct aroma of baked goods–the ones you had planned on making. When you investigate, you find that someone had used your ingredients to create your holiday treat–perfectly. Did someone sneak in and make treats for you? Did you bake in your sleep? …Are those tiny little footprints in the flour?
Backdated to December 2nd, 2022
Alexis hummed as she eyed the collection of products arranged in front of her. Dad was way too tired from the rush of the end of the semester to be able to start putting up all the holiday stuff. It'd only seemed right that she handle as many of their 'Christmas Startup' traditions as possible. She had the most time on her hands, after all… and well… But! It'd been a productive day thus far!
She'd gone up into the attic crawl spaces to drag out various boxes of their yearly Christmas decorations while him and her brothers were out at their respective classes. The morning was spent putting up garland with twinkle lights wound into it up around doorframes, plastic glossy ornaments hung up on garland and ribbons arranged off plastic frosted-looking tree branches above windows. Ceramic figurines of Santa Claus, elves, reindeer, and snowmen were set up on the mantel--dad had switched out the actual fireplace years ago. The chimney was closed up, giving way to a nice electric fireplace. Meant all the more decorations could be put up above it without it being a fire hazard--no, not the reason dad made the switch, but it was a surprising plus side in her book.
Stockings were hung up on said mantel by a collection of mice stocking holders that sat on the mantel. Alexis even got the fake tree set up in the living room, testing the lights to make sure they were good to go before assembling all the parts together. No star up top yet, no ornaments. That had to wait till everyone was together. Usually, they picked a night after the semester was over to make a nice dinner and the four of them would hang ornaments.
A tradition that was starting to get a bit harder to meet, she knew.
Carter was turning twenty-two this year, she thought. He was attending Destiny City University after graduating from Romano's like she had a few years ago. Something in Computer Science--she was horrible with remembering what point specifically he was looking at.
Peter was turning nineteen this year. He'd taken a year off from school to focus on working, something that'd been fine with dad since Peter was still doing something. Sure, everyone was kind of waiting to see if he'd decide to do some general requirements over at DCU or the community college their father worked at--he'd get a major discount if he did… which, really, was why all of them got their GenEd stuff done there. Alexis had gone for a full Associate's, since she still… ugh. Wasn't sure what to do beyond that.
Sure, everyone was still around, but she wasn't sure how many more years they'd have to do all their usual stuff.
Peter had even asked her the other day if she thought dad was seeing anyone…
Alexis groaned, flicking off the Christmas playlist blasting from her phone. Everyone had gotten home at their usual times, all aww'ing at the holiday displays she'd done up. It'd sparked up merry chatter and even Carter putting on Christmas carols on the TV to play as happy background music while they got dinner ready. Her brothers and dad bounced around plans of when they should meet up for some of their regular shopping trips--ones Alexis wasn't allowed to be part of, just as she had plenty of planned outings with others excluding specific people. It'd filled the house with such a happy glow, a warmth that Alexis found she adored more than anything else. Most wonderful time of the year rang in her head, and she just smiled because it felt so true at times like this.
She'd promised she'd make their favorite Heath chocolate chip cookies tomorrow, and all but the eggs were left out on the counter for her to jump on that first thing. There were a lot of other things she was going to make throughout the month, especially as they got closer to actual Christmas. But it was a house favorite, and one of those things that seemed to collectively signal the start of the holiday season for them. Everyone roamed off to their own parts of the house, and she knew they wouldn't mess with the ingredients--each of them had their own special thing they made for the holidays, and no one dared to interrupt that else risk getting subpar renditions… and the rest of the family's ire.
Sure, there'd been exceptions in the past, like when dad couldn't really work up the energy to do some of his baking and cooking cuz--
Alexis drew in a deep breath and shut the train of thought down, rubbing her eyes before giving the ingredients a final check over, and flicking off the kitchen lights as she headed up to bed.
When she woke up in the morning, it was to various text messages thanking her for making the cookies. Alexis frowned, trying to catch her brain up. Carter said thanks, Peter said thanks, dad said thanks…
Blurry-eyed and confused as hell, Alexis shuffled down to the kitchen, waking up more and more as she followed the scent of freshly baked Heath chocolate chip cookies.
Sure enough, multiple massive batches had been prepared and stored away in their holiday print plastic containers. All the bakeware had been washed and left to dry on the rack. Ingredients were put away. The longer she stood in the doorway of the kitchen staring at the scene, the less she understood what had happened. No, she hadn't made them the night before. And she didn't remember baking them… But even when she checked the amount of eggs in the fridge… yep. The count matched what she would have used, baffling her all the more.
She checked her phone again, noting the times the thank-you messages had been sent would have been around the time each of them had respectfully gotten up to head out for their day. No evidence lingered that one them had made the cookies… and why would they? That was her thing!
Frowning, she moved over to pop the lid of one container, her nose hit with the sweet, holiday-inspiring scent of her favorite cookies. Hesitantly, she nibbled one… and stared at the creations. They tasted perfect. So definitely none of them had done it…
Still baffled, she wandered around the kitchen nibbling the cookie, unable to be upset at this odd turn of events when she got something so yummy out of it. It was only when she was passing a window she realized was open a tiny crack, that she saw ever so tiny footprints on the window sill in… flour.
Alexis stared, looking closer at the scene around her. Tiny footprints in white powder, mostly cleaned up… it was only the tiniest bits that had been missed by whoever had tried to cover up after themselves.
As she glanced between the collection of cookies, the elf figurines decorating the mantel, and the window open a crack… Alexis burst into laughter, humming It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year as she closed the window and finished cleaning up after… whatever friendly little helpers seemed to have dropped by.
WC: 1,246
