Days passed by. Snow dusted the landscape of Hope Valley. The town continued to bustle with the upcoming holiday. The Christmas tree in the middle of town was filled with Christmas wishes. Holiday excitement was in the air and yes, school had wrapped up until after New Years.

Perhaps against her better judgment, Elizabeth had arranged for several of her students to come over and frost cookies with the Coulter kids. Rosemary and Lee had asked Elizabeth if Millie, Lottie, and Spencer could start after the holidays; after all, they were working on bonding as a family. Elizabeth hadn't seen any harm in the request so she had consented. But many of the school children wanted an opportunity to meet Millie, Lottie, and Spencer. So, Elizabeth asked Emily, Anna, Opal, Robert, Timmy, and Harper, along with Ally, to come over and make cookies. The children could take home the treats to their families. And Elizabeth could frost the Christmas cake at the same time.

Elizabeth and Ally had worked long and hard the day before making the Christmas cake. It had taken three tries to get it just right. After all, there was not really a recipe for this special cake. The first time there was not enough leavening. The second time it had gotten burnt. But the third time was definitely a charm. Waiting overnight to let the cake fully cool before decorating it had been the right idea, Elizabeth realized.

Elizabeth looked around her kitchen table. All of the children were fitting in with one another. Someone would have thought it was awkward, meeting new people could be, but Elizabeth noticed there was zero awkwardness. The children were laughing, piling frosting onto the cookies and decorating them with an over-abundance of candy.

Nathan knocked on the door and walked in. "Mrs. Thornton," Nathan put on a mock authoritarian voice. "You are creating a public disturbance with all of this noise and laughter."

Elizabeth put her hands on her hips. She was aware that she had flour all over her skirt, despite the apron, and on her face. "Well what are you going to do about it Constable Grant?"

Nathan took his hat off and put it on the entry table. "Well, considering you are having fun, I'll overlook it this time!"

In the midst of the banter, the children had decided to get a little out of hand where frosting was concerned. "I can pile my frosting higher," Spencer spoke up, spooning a huge dollop of frosting onto his snowman cookie.

"Not as high as I can!" Robert got an even larger dollop of frosting. Then he proceeded to eat the cookie getting frosting all over his face.

"You have frosting all over your face!" Ally teased.

"So do you Ally," Anna dipped her finger in the frosting and ran it across the length of Ally's nose. Millie was getting frosting on Opal, Spencer was getting it on Timmy. IT was almost as if more frosting was on skin than cookies.

"Alright everyone," Constable Grant walked over to the children and took a bowl of frosting away from the kids. Each child looked in respect at Nathan. "I think we all need to have icing on our faces." Quick as a flash, Nathan had icing on his finger and put it on Elizabeth's nose, leaving her in stunned surprise.

The children laughed as they watched their beloved teacher realize what had just occurred. Elizabeth had a playful pout on her face and Nathan proceeded to put even more frosting on Elizabeth's nose. "Hey!" Elizabeth squealed.

She walked around the table in the opposite direction of Nathan, whispering in Ally's ear. Ally looked conspiratorially at Elizabeth, nodded, then slowly approached her dad.

"Ally!" Nathan protested. "Don't even think about it!"

As Nathan backed away from Ally, he found himself walking closer to Elizabeth. She quickly put frosting on his nose. Nathan gave the goofiest grin. "You two are impossible."

Seeing the adults having fun with frosting encouraged the children to get up and chase each other around the table. The moments of frivolity were infectious. Nathan wrapped his arms around Elizabeth and kissed her nose, tasting the frosting as he did so.

"Do you have any idea how badly I wanted to put frosting on your nose last year?" Nathan kissed Elizabeth's nose again. "It was a wonderful shock that you attacked me with frosting."

"Attacked you with frosting?" Elizabeth laughed. "That is not how I remember it. And I can ask the girls here to corroborate my story."

"Oh, with so many witnesses, I would lose!" Nathan laughed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw all of Elizabeth's classmates watching the two of them. He broke away and tried to restore order. "Before Mrs. Thornton's kitchen gets more messy, why don't all of you go upstairs and wipe your faces." Surprisingly, they all listened. He must have learned some tricks of the trade from Elizabeth after all.

"They like you," Elizabeth smiled.

"I like them," Nathan admitted. "Remember when you asked me if I would talk with Robert about being a Mountie?"

"How can I forget?" Elizabeth remembered that day vividly. Robert had approached her about wanting to be a Mountie and she had offered to talk to Nathan about him. Nathan had been surprised that Elizabeth wasn't immediately opposed to his being a Mountie. But in the end, Robert had decided he wanted to be a kid a little while longer.

"Well, I remember being scared out of my mind when I asked him if he wanted to talk." Nathan shook his head. "But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I like being involved in the kids' lives. They are Ally's friends. They are your students. I protect them as citizens of Hope Valley. So I guess I like seeing them laugh and having fun, especially Millie, Lottie, and Spencer."

"Lee said they are getting acclimated," Elizabeth shared with Nathan. "Each day they open up more, talk more. I'm just glad that Jesse is holding down the sawmill right now so Lee can stay home."

"This town would do anything for Lee and Rosemary," Nathan remarked.

The children had come back from upstairs, faces freshly cleaned.

"Oh Elizabeth!" Nathan seemed to remember a piece of information. "My mother sent me Little Jack's Christmas present, but I left it at the jail. Would you be able to come by there later and help me wrap it? I would like to get it in the door without the little guy seeing."

"Sure," Elizabeth nodded. "After dinner? If Ally is willing to watch Little Jack?"

"Oh sure, Miss Elizabeth!" It was all Ally could do to not wink at her dad or get too excited. "I'd be happy to. I'll wrap my Christmas presents then too!"

"So it sounds like a plan," Nathan put his hat back on but not before giving Elizabeth's nose one final frosting touch.