The Night Before Cookies

The Night Before Cookies

By Lily, Sophie, Addie, and Miss Jeanne

Mary Ellen breathed in the wonderful aroma of freshly baked cookies. She stood with her grandma in the kitchen, savoring the sweet scent. Her grandma always made delicious treats, but being Christmas Eve, she had baked her special peanut-butter cookies with chocolate-drop centers. Mary Ellen had finally reached the age where her grandma allowed her to place the chocolate drop on each cookie.

With the baking finished, her grandma took a plate of the cookies into the living room for Santa. They had a place of honor on a small round table beside the Christmas tree, and every year, when Mary Ellen woke on Christmas morning, she found presents under the tree and an empty cookie plate. Obviously, Santa liked the peanut-butter-and-chocolate cookies as much as Mary Ellen.

She settled on one of the kitchen chairs to wait for her grandma to return. Soon, Mary Ellen would listen to her read one of her favorite Christmas stories.

“Your grandpa is already sound asleep,” Gee Gee said with a laugh as she came back into the kitchen. “He’s in his recliner, and he’s snoring up a storm.”

Mary Ellen giggled, then sighed. “I thought he wanted to listen to the story, too.”

Gee Gee leaned close. “He’s heard it many times before, and I imagine he’s dreaming it, sweetheart. Your grandpa loves Christmas as much as you do.”

“Will you read it to me now, Gee Gee?”

“Of course.” She opened the book and took a deep breath. “’Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house…” Gee Gee paused and looked at Mary Ellen with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Keep going, Gee Gee,” Mary Ellen said. She bent forward in her chair, put her elbow on the table, and rested her chin in her hand. Her grandma always put a lot of emotion into her voice, and Mary Ellen loved listening to her read.

“All right.” Gee Gee smiled and affectionately tapped the tip of Mary Ellen’s nose. “Not a creature was stirring, not even a—”

CRASH!

Gee Gee’s eyes popped wide, and Mary Ellen whipped around in her seat toward the sound.

“Good heavens!” her grandma cried out, dropped the book on the table, and rushed to the living room.

Mary Ellen jumped from her seat and followed her, then stopped abruptly. The table of honor by the Christmas tree sat empty. No cookies. No plate.

“George?” Gee Gee screamed his name.

Mary Ellen’s grandpa was nowhere to be found. The recliner was in an upright position and as empty as the small table.

Her grandma scurried across the room faster than Mary Ellen had ever seen her move, then slowed as she approached shards of broken glass on the carpet. A cold wind blew through the living room, coming from a shattered front window. Tiny snowflakes drifted along with it.

“It’s snowing inside, Gee Gee!” Mary Ellen yelled.

“George!” Gee Gee peered outside through the jagged glass. Her head jerked back. “Oh, dear…”

Mary Ellen started to cross to her, but her grandma put up a hand and stopped her. “I’ll meet you at the front door,” Gee Gee said. “I don’t want you to get cut on the broken glass.”

Mary Ellen did as she was told. She and her grandma grabbed their coats from the rack by the door and put them on. They also got her grandpa’s coat and headed outside.

“Do you know what happened, Gee Gee?” Mary Ellen asked.

“I think your grandpa is sleepwalking again.”

“And he walked through the window?”

Her grandma looked as if she might cry. “It would seem so.”

A vision of Grandpa Gee with cuts all over him came to mind, so Mary Ellen quickly dismissed that awful thought. She hoped he wasn’t hurt at all.

They followed large footprints made in the snow by her grandpa’s slippers. “I’m glad he wasn’t barefooted,” Mary Ellen said, and her grandma readily nodded her agreement.

They hurried along, hand in hand, and finally caught up to him.

“George?” Gee Gee reached out and lightly touched his arm.

He didn’t say a word, but he slowly pivoted around and faced them. His eyes were half shut, he had smudges of chocolate around his mouth, and he held the special plate in his hands. Not a single cookie remained.

“George!” Gee Gee repeated in a more scolding kind of tone.

“Huh?” His eyelids fluttered, then fully opened. “Gert? What happened?” He glanced down at himself. “Why am I out in the snow in my bathrobe, and…” He held up the empty plate with one hand and rubbed his belly with the other. “Why does my stomach hurt?”

Gee Gee folded her arms. “You were sleepwalking again, George. And it appears you ate all of Santa’s cookies.”

Grandpa Gee burped.

Mary Ellen giggled.

Gee Gee just shook her head. “Well, it looks like I’ll be baking another batch. We can’t disappoint Santa Claus. Thank goodness you weren’t cut to pieces walking through that window, George.”

“Maybe Santa will bring you a new window for Christmas,” Mary Ellen said and handed her grandpa his coat. “Put this on Grandpa Gee. You’ve been through enough already. You don’t want to catch cold.”

“I feel so foolish,” he mumbled. “I remember dreaming about that Christmas story you love so much, Mary Ellen. I suppose I just tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.”

Mary Ellen tipped her head to one side and stared at him. “So, that’s what that means? Breaking a window?”

“I suppose it does.” He chuckled and put an arm around her. “Let’s go back where it’s warm.” He handed the empty plate to her grandma, and the three of them went inside.

They had cookies to bake and a story to finish.