Christmas Joy by Nancy Naigle

Author:Nancy Naigle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Chapter Nineteen

Joy hugged her robe around her as she tried to quietly traverse the squeaking stairs. It seemed like the more she tried, the louder she was. Her body was as tight as if she’d just done an hour of Pilates after the stealth trip down only a dozen steps. She relaxed once she took that final step into the living room and headed to the kitchen to make coffee.

And after all that careful maneuvering to keep from waking up Molly, the little girl was already sitting at the table, dressed for school.

“Hey, you’re up early,” Joy said. There was still a lot of time left to go before that school bus would come and pick her up. “Didn’t you sleep well?”

“Yes. Mom says I’m an early bird.”

Molly had already poured herself a cup of milk. “Well, we might have time to go to the community tree this morning if you’d like to do that.”

“Can we?”

That little smile tugged at Joy’s heart. “Sure. I can feed the animals after you go to school. I think Jack, Nanny, and Waddles will understand. It’s just one morning.” Besides, it wouldn’t be completely awful if she happened to run into Ben again. “Should we make a fresh batch of cookies and decorate one to place on the community tree?”

“Yes!”

Joy pulled out a stick of the frozen cookie dough and sliced enough pieces for a baker’s dozen of cookies and two larger slices to cut into shapes for the community tree ornaments.

“If you pull out that bottom drawer by the sink, there should be some cookie cutters in there. See if you can find us two extra-special Christmas shapes.”

Molly ran across the kitchen, her shoes slapping across the tile, then plunked down on the floor and started pulling things out of the drawer.

Joy set the oven temperature and laid a clean cookie sheet on the counter. Their aprons from last night were draped over one of the chair backs.

“What do you think? Are our aprons too messy to wear again today?”

Molly laughed, showing a missing front bottom tooth. “We’d be messy before we started.”

“True. That would not be good. Hang on.” Joy walked down to Ruby’s bedroom. Ruby had a stack of T-shirts from events going as far back as the nineties, probably older if Joy had taken the time to really peruse them. She took the top two from the stack and carried them back into the kitchen. She slipped the first one over Molly’s head and then pulled one on herself. “There. We’re ready.”

Joy let Molly shape the thin slices into little crescent moons while Joy found the rolling pin, then carefully and neatly sifted confectioners’ sugar into an eight-inch square baking dish for the finishing work.

“All done,” Molly said, wiping her hands on her T-shirt.

“Perfect timing.” Joy slid the tray of crescents into the oven, set the timer, and then joined Molly at the counter.

Joy picked up the rolling pin and said, “Okay, now we’re going to sprinkle just a little

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