TREATS AND SWEETS

Chapter 1

"We need to stop at the bakery for some biscuits," Leia informed the twins, aged five and a half, and four year old Anakin.

"Aww, Mom! Neshri's mom always bakes theirs! Why do we hafta go to the bakery?" Jacen whined.

"Because I'm not a baker," Leia replied.

"But we are!" Jaina informed her mother.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease, Mom?" Anakin begged.

Leia's shoulders sagged. Sweet biscuits were a delicious Winter Fete tradition, and there were several good bakeries in the area. Leia could, after several years of instruction from Han, could whip up a good meal. But Han had never taken much to sweets, and Leia was always in a time crush.

The pleading looks on her children's faces were probably a great example of method acting.

"Mom, you never bake anything. I wanna learn to bake!" Jacen insisted.

Resisting those faces was something Leia was incapable of.

"Okay, we'll bake. But we have to get a lot of things to do this, so you're going to have to be patient while we shop."

"I'll be good!" Jaina announced eagerly.

"All right. Jackets, hats, mittens."

For once, there was no struggle to get the three ready to head out.

Let's see how they are after they find out how many shops we need to go to, Leia thought as she bundled up.

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Winter Fete was due to begin at sunset the following evening. The first and last nights were for gift exchanges and the shops were crammed.

"Stay close, kids. It's a madhouse out here," she ordered the children. So far, they were excited and cooperating. She hadn't purchased a single gift; Han was going to be looking after the kids once he arrived home and she was going to join the last minute looters and plunderers. At least the gifts on first night were modest ones; larger gifts were exchanged on the last night.

The first thing Leia needed was a recipe datapad. The selection of available volumes was mind boggling. She finally chose one that promised simplicity in all recipes; it was designed for children, and Leia considered herself as a baker to be just about that level. She figured maybe at least one of the kids would decide someday to learn to bake.

Having located a book with some suitable recipes for Winter Fete biscuits, the next phase was to find cutters for the various shapes that were traditional. The traditional ones were bells, various winter flowers, snowflakes and candles. The kids approved of them, and the final challenge was foodshopping.

Leia had never gotten comfortable in the massive food market. Han knew everyone and anyone, as he was the one who did the most stocking up, and apparently conversations were part of the experience, but Leia hoped that she could get by and not be noticed. Her hair has in braids wrapped up around her head, a toque covering most of it. She was without cosmetics and dressed in her most casual clothes, buried under layers of winter apparel.

"Jaina, read what I need," Leia said, handing Jaina the recipe datapad, which listed the ingredients needed. Unfortunately, the ingredients were not all in the same place, and Leia found herself repeatedly asking her daughter and sons where things were; they didn't always go with Han but they accompanied him often enough that they had a clue as to where everything was located.

The kids had behaved well for most of the expedition, but in the food market, the teasing, taunting, pushing and shouting had begun again.

"Stop it now, or we won't be baking anything," Leia hissed at them.

The kids were astute enough to know that they'd gone over the line if she was hissing. If she'd been yelling, they wouldn't have considered it significant.

The market was crowded, and Leia had been grateful for it, but hoped that the holorazzi had not been around. She and Han had gotten a court order saying that the children were off limits, but some of the holographers had ethics that were more questionable than those of some former Imperial tyrants, and the payoff could be worth the risk, depending upon which publications would purchase the holos. Leia hustled them out and hailed a holotaxi; the infamous 'wintry mix' that Coruscant was famous for in the cold months was now coming down heavily. It had barely been an icy drizzle when they'd left their apartment.

The warmth of the apartment was welcome. Jaina, Jacen and Anakin all entered and tossed off everything but their boots, which they tracked all over the floor. The pile of jackets, mittens, toques and scarves were tossed into a heap.

And people wonder why I don't entertain at home, Leia muttered to herself. Their home wasn't dirty, but it was cluttered, as in, every inch of available space was covered. Leia groaned as she observed the sink full of breakfast dishes, kaf mugs, and drinking glasses.

"Jaina, Jacen, dishes in the scrubber," Leia announced to the two older children.

"But we wanna bake!" Jaina protested.

"So do I, but there's no room in the kitchen. You and Jacen are in charge of the dishes. Anakin, put the food away." There were several boxes of cereal, breakfast breads, honey and jam occupying whatever counter space could be freed up, which, admittedly, was not a lot. The dining room table was going to have to serve as a workspace. Leia wished that she had a tarp to put under the table. The last one they'd had was taken to the rubbish bin after Anakin had decided that food was something one threw at one's siblings as opposed to on the floor. That, too, was covered with datapads and stuffed animals and books and gods only knew what else. As she'd run out of children to employ, she figured she was the one to do it.

We really need a larger place, she thought as she attempted to organize the detritus on the table. It was a beautiful dining table; Han had built it when they were first married. He had built it to last at least a hundred years; that was his motto for building furniture. The bed they slept in, made love in, conceived three children in was designed with the same intent. And the cradles he'd built when the twins were born was something that was bound to be an heirloom.

The apartment might not have been tidy, but it was bursting with memories. Sometimes literally, she mused.

"All right, now, keep in mind that I've never done this before," Leia warned the kids.

"We never did it before, either," Jaina reminded her mother.

"Let's see what we need to do first." Leia read the instructions. "First of all, it says, preheat the baker." Leia went back to the kitchen to warm it up.

"It says soften butter to room tempachur...what's that?" Jaina said, reading the recipe.

Leia grabbed one of the sticks of butter, which the boys had begun to play with. "It means it shouldn't be hard as a rock, which means I'll have to get it soft in the microcooker." She grabbed the two sticks before Anakin and Jacen came up with anymore ideas about digging their fingers into it, throwing it at each other, or sticking it up their noses.

She popped it into the microcooker and pondered as to how long she should let it soften. She thought thirty seconds would be enough.

Unfortunately, it was more than enough; the butter was a pool of pale yellow liquid. Leia groaned, but figured it would probably not make a difference.

"Wait till it's measured!" Leia said to Anakin, who wanted to empty the sugar into the butter and was pushing on the measuring cup that held it. Leia thanked the gods that Han had thought to provide measuring equipment when they were furnishing their apartment what felt like roughly several centuries ago. "Jacen, we need an egg, and Jaina, the flavoring."

"Which one? We got three."

"The recipe says you can use one of them, so pick the one you like."

"Not that one!" Anakin balked. "'Sides, why do we hafta have flavor?" Anakin had a fussy palate and he liked the few foods he would eat the same way: bland to the point of being nearly tasteless.

"It's in the recipe, and I'm sure it'll be delicious. And it's loaded with sugar, which I happen to know you like," Leia shot a look at her youngest child. Leia measured out a tablespoon and let Jacen empty it into the sugar and butter. It escaped her notice that the recipe indicated a teaspoon and not a tablespoon. Baking with three overly eager children was more distracting than she'd have liked, but the point was to enjoy their time together, she reminded herself. And she had no illusions that there wouldn't be squabbling; right now it was, by her standards, fairly low level.

"I wanna crack the egg!" Jaina clamored.

"No fair!" Anakin shouted back.

"You can't do it. You always mess it up!" Jaina retorted to her younger brother.

"Stop arguing, or I'll stop baking these biscuits!" Leia told all of them sharply.

"Jacen, crack the egg."

"But I wanted to do it!" Both of the other siblings complained.

"Not. Another. Word!"

Leia wondered why she'd agreed to this. But in for a penny, in for a pound, she told herself.