"Merlin's beard, it's bloody freezing out there!" Ted exclaimed as he walked into the house, brushing snow off of his shoulders. Andromeda, who was sitting on the couch nursing Nymphadora, glared at him. "I know, I know, watch my language around the baby. Honestly, she's only two months old, it's not like she can tell what I'm saying." He said, rolling his eyes.
"It doesn't matter that she doesn't know what you're saying now. In a few months, she'll start repeating everything we say, and you need to learn how to control your language around her before then." She replied. "Oh, Molly sent over her peanut butter cookie recipe. I thought we might try to make some today, since there's not much else we can do with it so cold out."
"Hmmm, that sounds great." Ted hummed, bending down to kiss his wife and daughter. "Her hair's pink today, then?" He asked, gesturing to the nursing infant.
Andromeda nodded, smiling down at Nymphadora. "Yes. It was bright green earlier. I think it might change based on her moods, actually. Green when she's hungry, pink when she's happy, red when she needs her nappy changed."
"You know, I think you may be right." Ted smiled at his wife. "Now, where's that recipe? I'll go get all the ingredients together."
"It's pinned to the refrigerator." She replied. "It looks like this little one is full. I'll go burp her and lay her down for a nap. Meet you in the kitchen."
"Okay, first we mix the cream butter, the crunchy peanut butter, the brown sugar, and the white sugar together and beat in the eggs?" Ted asked. Andromeda nodded in reply. "You do that while I sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt." They both set about their tasks in silence. When they were done, Ted took another look at the recipe. "It says here we need to mix these together and chill for an hour."
"The waiting is the best part when it comes to baking." Andromeda said. "And I'm sure we'll think of something to do while we wait."
Ted smiled as he put the mixture in the refrigerator. "I've always found that board games are fun to play when there's nothing else to do. Could you set a timer, dear?" He asked as he turned back around.
"Sure. So what game are we going to play? Scrabble, Risk, Sorry?" Andromeda asked. "Or how about Monopoly?" Her eyes were glittering. Ted knew he was in for it. Andromeda always won at Monopoly, no matter who she played against. Ted always assumed it was because her Pureblood upbringing had taught her how to handle money and what investments to make.
"Dammit!" Ted yelled as he landed on Reading Railroad. It was the third time that he had landed on a railroad since Andromeda had bought the all, and he was almost out of money.
"Pay up, dear husband." Andromeda said, a smirk on her face. She was a Slytherin to the core, every bit as ruthless as her sister Bellatrix, though she did a good job hiding it. Her more vicious side tended to come out whenever she played board games with her husband, and he had learned long ago that playing against her was not the best idea in the world. However, his love of playing won out over his dread at losing to the woman he loved.
Just as Andromeda was picking up the dice to make her roll, they heard the timer go off in the kitchen. "Time to start baking then." Ted said, getting up off of the floor and helping Andromeda up. "Can you preheat the oven while I put them on the pan? I think it was supposed to be 190.5 degrees."
Once the cookies were in the oven, Andromeda started to clean up the ingredients that they had left out. She saw the flour sitting open on the counter and smirked. "Hey, Ted?"
"Yes, love?" He answered, turning around only to have his wife flick flour in his face. He gaped at her before walking over, grabbing a handful of flour, and slinging it in his face. She reciprocated with another handful of her own.
By the time the cookies were done, the couple was covered head to toe in flour and they were practically rolling on the floor with laughter. "Ted," Andromeda gasped out between giggles. "Ted, the cookies are going to burn."
Ted leaned forward to kiss her. "Let them burn." He smiled against her lips as he deepened the kiss.
Andromeda broke away from him. "No. We worked too hard on them, and I don't want that to go to waste. Get the cookies out now, we can kiss later." As if on cue, Nymphadora started screaming. "See, our daughter agrees with me. Now you get the cookies and I'll get Dora."
Ted smiled as he looked at his wife and daughter before taking a bite out of one of the fresh peanut butter cookies. What better way is there to spend the day than baking cookies and playing Monopoly with the woman you love?