Cupcake snuck around the kitchen. Silently tiptoeing behind the light blue dog who was hard at work mixing a gargantuan bowl of a delicious looking dough. As she approached, she stopped suddenly as the dog stopped. Did he hear her? Waiting with bated breath, she exhaled when he continued his work. This was it. This was her opportunity. Reaching into her pocket, she grasped the flattened metal. Whipping it out and holding it over her head, she closed her eyes and charged. "Roar!" She yelled, striking the metal down sharply into the bowl as she snuck past the dog who was now shaking his head.
"You know if you eat all of the dough there isn't going to be any left for anybody else. What happened to the last spoonful?" The blue dog chuckled as he moved aside and let the pink cat scoop out a decent sized chunk.
"Hey, I'm hungry. It isn't my fault you make the best cookies in Toontown. Besides, there's only eight other Toons coming tonight. You have enough cookies here to feed an entire playground! Plus, who is going to make sure that every batch is coming out okay? I am just taste-testing. It is an important and valiant task, indeed! You should be thanking me dad!" Cupcake stuck out her tongue and dashed out of the room, leaving the dog laughing and getting back to his work. As she stepped into the living room, Cupcake walked over to a Telemarketer who was up on a small step-ladder, stringing up beautiful arrays of colorful lights. "Wow, Marky. This looks incredible. I never knew cogs were such great decorators!"
The busy cog shrugged and looked over his shoulder to the excitable cat. "Well to me it is just like any other work. I make sure every task that is assigned to me is completed with utmost efficiency and quality." Winking, he smiled at Cupcake. "Besides, I am just trying to match the beauty that I see in you every day."
"Oh, Marky. You know just how to get a girl to share some of her cookie dough." Handing up the spoon to her fiancee, Cupcake chuckled as Mark took the utensil and gently stuck out his tongue. Closing his eyes, he eventually made light contact with the scrumptious treat and pursed his lips. "So... how is it?"
"Well, it is quite different than anything I have ever had. I don't know how to explain it. While it i certainly no spicy oil soup, I could certainly enjoy this. However I must finish my work. The first guests are going to be here any minute and I don't want them to be disappointed!" Handing back the spoon, the short Telemarketer continued to string up long lines of lights.
By complete coincidence, as soon as he had mentioned them, there was a light knocking on the door. "Could you please get the door, sweetie." The blue dog yelled from the kitchen. Shoving the spoon into her mouth to finish off the last remnants of the dough, Cupcake skipped over to the front door and peeked through the peephole. Grinning, she stepped back and pulled open the door. Outside was a group of five Toons. Two pink cats, a black cat, a lime green dog, and a baby lime green cat.
"Merry Christmas!" The quartet of adults called out in unison. The Toons had donned matching red sweaters with a picture of a snowman sunbathing in Donald's Dock that said "Don't sweater the small things." Walking inside, the lime green dog had with him a large sack full of gifts.
"Hey, I'm gonna go put these under the tree. It just feels a bit festive that way." The green dog smiled and lugged the giant bag over to a wonderfully decorated pine tree. "I got something for all of you guys. I also brought something for both Brownies, Flip Pea, Flippy, Benny, Daron, and Nightmare. Everybody gets a present. Hopefully I didn't miss anybody."
Cupcake helped pull out and the gifts and place them under the tree. "Nope, you're good Skids. It is a pretty small party tonight. We decided that it would be best to only have closest friends and family. Didn't want it to get too crazy. Last year dad invited like fifty Toons and it got a bit out of hand." The group chuckled. "Oh my gosh, Rosie is so cute. Can I hold her please?" Walking over the the darker pink cat, she scooped the kitten away and started tickling her stomach. "She looks like me when I was a baby! Or at least I assume. I was a pretty cute baby so, yeah she looks like me!"
"She's quite precious. She looks a lot like her mom, too." The older pink cat purred as he wrapped his arm around the black cat. "Really makes me want to be a dad again. Everyone tell Reessess the same thing. We need more babies, right?"
"Sure, dad. I'm sure Rosie could really use some friends growing up!" The pink cat giggled as Cupcake held up a baby picture of herself to try and compare. "So, Mark. How are you doing? We haven't seen you in a while!"
Stepping off of his ladder, he dusted his hands off and Joined Cupcake in coddling the young Toon. "Things are going well. Don't tell anybody but Mayor Flippy has been working on a proposal. Level seven gags. Some of the top scientoonsts have been working on more powerful gags that could attack every cog in battle. Including non-sound." As Mark spoke,
Flippy came out and wrapped his arm around his soon to be son-in-law's shoulders and laughed uncomfortably. "Ah, C'mon Marky. No need for your silly stories at Christmas. "Alright, everybody. I have a few batch of cookies cooling. We have peanut-butter, chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, and sugar. Feel free to go wild. This year I planned ahead and made sure that there is well more than enough for everybody!"
"Now that is what I call a host! You don't need to tell me twice!" Wiggle leapt up and darted into the kitchen, followed by Reessess who was shaking her head sarcastically. The rest of the group laughed and continued telling stories when there was another knock on the door.
"Well how about that. Looks like another batch of guests just in time for a batch of cookies." The pink cat teased, cuddling up next to Skids.
Cupcake stood up and handed Rosie back to Susie and walked over to answer the door. Yanking it open again she rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Look who it is now. If it isn't Benny, Daron, and Nightmare. I GUESS you three can come in." She teased her friends who quickly took the opportunity to get out of the cold.
"Hey everybody. Sorry we're late. Benny and Nightmare wanted to stop to get last minute gifts for everybo... I mean they needed to stop to um. Um. I don't know. Anyways, we're here." The older black cat cupped his hands and breathed into them, trying his best to thaw them after being outside.
"Well it isn't Christmas without presents right? Don't worry, I brought something for everybody! After all, I am the Christmas Queen!" Nightmare carried a large sack and placed it near the tree and began to gently place the gifts in an organized fashion. "Wow, it looks like somebody already brought a whole bunch. See, dad. I'm not the only one. No need to be such a Grinch!"
Benny kissed his husband on the cheek and rubbed his arm. "Don't worry honey. You're not a Grinch, more like a Scrooge." Sniffing the air, the dark red cat salivated. "Are those cookies? I love cookies. Can I have one... or five?" Wiggling his fingers, he imagined all of the delicious treats that he could be eating. It was his favorite part of Christmas.
"Go for it, Benny. I have plenty for everyone!" Flippy smiled and waved his arms towards the kitchen. It didn't take long for the famished feline to flee into the kitchen to join his fellow father for a feast.
Deputy stood up and walked over to the tree and joined Nightmare. "You know, you may be the Christmas Queen, but I am the Holiday um, King. Just wait until you see what I got everybody. You will all bow to me!" Laughing uproariously, the green dog walked back and sat down with his wife. "Just kidding, I will allow you all to just remember who the true gift-giving God here is."
"We'll just see about that." Nightmare narrowed her eyes and put up her fists jokingly. Before further chaos could ensue, a further knock came to the door. Everybody waited in anticipation for who was next. "Gosh, it's getting crazy in here."
For the third time, Cupcake stood up and sauntered over, pulling open the door. Now outside, was a lime green dog, a brown cat, and coming up behind them was another small group of cats. "Evening Flip! Brownie! Come on in!" Pulling the two Toons in, she leaned against the door as four more felines approached. "Professor Rainbow? What are you doing here?"
A large, pink cat bounced up the stairs and hugged the smaller one. "Merry Christmas, Cupcake! Well you see, me and the family were just on our way home from a different party and we saw your house all lit up with the beautiful lights, and I was enthralled with Christmas cheer to come say hello!"
"Plus we smelled Christmas cookies and we didn't eat yet." A lanky, purple cat added.
"Well, I mean. Yeah, after all your dad does make the best cookies after all. Plus Val and Crayon were getting cold... So what do you say? Mind if we drop by for a little bit?" Rainbow widened her eyes, puckered her lips and put on her most innocent face.
Flip who had already wandered inside and was mesmerized by the sights and smells turned to his friend. "Ah, come on Cup. You're not going to turn them away on Christmas are you?"
"Of course not. Come on in guys..." Cupcake whispered. As the cats walked in, she pulled Rainbow aside and mumbled in her ear. "I'm expecting an A in Gag Theory this semester for Christmas though."
Deputy, who had planned perfectly for the night with the expected guests was torn. How would it look if he had bought a gift for everybody, but then left out four Toons? Standing up he navigated through the slowly crowding living room and made his way to the front door. "Hey guys, I have to go grab something... I'll be right back!" Taking off running, he made his way to go search for an open store that he could buy gifts at.
Stepping out of the kitchen was Flippy, joined by Wiggle and Benny who were being kicked out after devouring one too many cookies. "Come on, let's save some for everyone else..." Looking up, his eyes widened when he saw four unexpected guests. "Oh, good evening everybody! Merry Christmas! What are you all doing here?"
"Aunt Rainbow dragged us here against our will. The only way to save us is through cookies." Crayon joked, attracting laughter from the growing crowd.
"Well, alright. Good thing I overdid things this year. I think we should be fine since this is everybody." Pausing, he scanned the room. "Hey, where did Deputy go? Eh, whatever. We have a different lime green dog. Hey Flip, think you can act like Skids?"
Flip looked around and shrugged. "Um. My name is Skids. I am a Ranger. Blah blah blah." Everyone laughed at the accurate imitation. "Anyways, I think he stepped out."
"Is that Professor Wiggle I see?" Rainbow walked over and joined her fellow instructor. "Didn't expect to see you here. How do you know Flippy?"
"Oh, my daughter is married to Deputy Skids. So I guess that's good enough to get an invite. How's the teaching going?" The pair of cats continued on. Across the room, Val walked over and threw her hands across the eyes of the red cat who had snuck one more cookie from the kitchen while Flippy was distracted.
Startled, Benny threw his arms up. "I promise I didn't steal this. I found it under the couch!"
"Hey, buddy! Long time, no see. How are you Benny?" Val giggled as she watched the dropped cookie go rolling underneath the sofa.
"Val? Wow, is that you? How long has it been since we have seen each other?" Turning around, the pair of cats embraced after more than twenty years since they had last spoken. "Gosh, I didn't know you guys would be here or I would have gotten you something. What kind of friend forgets gifts?" Stepping back, he pulled out his whisper device. "Hey, did you notice the time. I just realized I was going to pick up something from the store... I will be right back!' Sprinting out of the estate, the red cat nearly barreled directly into a large group of Christmas Carolers. "Excuse me, sorry." He yelled as he ran by.
Led by a yellow deer, the small group consisted of a variety of Toons wearing Santa hats and colorful sweaters. Joining the deer was a light green deer with a red nose, a purple monkey, a red cat, a red mouse, a green cat, a peach rabbit, an orange rabbit, a short, chonk crocodile and a blue mouse. Singing joyous songs, they stood outside of Flippy's house and began to sing as the parties inside stopped to enjoy the harmonious tone. "We wish you a Merry Christmas, said Frosty the Snowman! He had a very shiny nose, and if you ever saw it you might kiss Santa Claus!" On and on they sang, until they had finally exhausted all sixteen verses. "Thank you! Thank you very much!" The yellow deer curtsied. "We are the Fruit Army + A Vegetable! Here to deliver Christmas Cheer... and maybe stop in for a cookie?"
"Oh my goodness, I don't think we have enough room for nine more Toons. I'm very sorry..." Before Mark could finish speaking, he was interrupted by the ever friendly Flippy who could never turn anyone away.
"Ah, c'mon Mark. They came all this way just to deliver us some music. The least we can do is let them come inside and have some... cookies. I better get back to work. Cupcake, I'm not going to be able to let you taste test anymore!" The blue dog began jogging back into the kitchen as a small array of carolers stepped inside from the cold. At this point, there was just enough room for Toons to stand and make small talk. For most of the next twenty minutes, the various groups intermingled. Making new friends and going through piles of food. Eventually one lime dog returned with a second gaggle of Christmas presents. Upon entering, he was horrified to see that another ten Toons had joined the party and he was not prepared. Without saying a word, he turned around and made his way jogging back to the store.
Cupcake was beginning to be overwhelmed by the amount of chaos. Deciding to try and get everybody on the same page, she stood up on the couch and clapped her hands. "Hey everybody! How about we go ahead and start opening presents! That sounds fun, right?"
"I think Deputy is still out. Plus, I think Benny is still out too." Daron called out, gaining murmurs of agreement from the partiers.
"Hmm. Alright. Well how about we all play a game or something? Maybe we can all sing a song?" The pink cat desperately tried to find an activity for everybody. The additional fourteen Toons had really thrown a wrench in things and had given her flashbacks of the previous Christmas.
Nightmare wiggled her way through to join the pink cat and stood in unison. I agree with Cupcake. "How about the rest of us show our appreciation to the Fruit Army Plus A Vegetable and show off our singing skills!"
"That's a brilliant idea. After all, I am a terrible singer and so it will probably thin out this crowd a little bit." Reessess chuckled. "Now if I could only thin this belly." She reached over and patted her husband on the belly. "So, what do we want to sing?"
"How about grandma got ran over by the CEO? That is a classic!" Susie quipped, getting agreement from the crowd. Bursting out into song, the Toons began to sing off tune, forgetting lyrics, and generally being out of sync. Yet they sang, and laughed. It was a wonderful Christmas. As they sang, the door opened and Benny walked in with his newfound gifts. Similar to Skids before him, he was surprised to see even more Toons. However, unlike his friend he quietly slipped in and joined his husband in song as if he had never left. The singing was interrupted by a small power surge which briefly turned out the lights.
After a moment, the power came back on and everybody had forgotten where they were and given up on singing. The night continued on with more talking, eating, and other fun. After about fifteen minutes, there was yet another knock on the door. Exasperated, Cupcake made her way back to the front door and furrowed her brow. Opening the door, she revealed a small party of Toons. A yellow monkey sat with her arms crossed. "Good evening. My name is Anna Banana, I am your next door neighbor? Well we were throwing a Christmas party when our power went out... and it still hasn't come back on. Would it be okay if we came over here for a bit until it gets turned back on? We brought cake and cookies!"
"Well I don't know how much room we have in here." Cupcake turned and looked at the Toons who were squished together.
"Oh, don't worry about that sweetie. We have plenty of room upstairs. Go ahead and let them in!" Flippy, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead waved for the group to come in. "Plus they have food. I can't turn down some more food!"
Anna smiled and nodded. "Thank you. These are my friends Captain Scurvy, Melville, John, Horsenado, Cross, Jade, Mariner, Edmund, and Calypso. Also we actually brought the party from a house down the street who also lost power."
A brown monkey smiled awkwardly and waved. "Hey. My name is Chip. Thank you guys so much. Can't believe this is happening on Christmas. Um anyways, this is Bloople, Clover, Rudy, Romeo, and Raindrop." The fifteen extra Toons made their way in. By now, couples were sitting on each others laps, friends were back to back, and the cookies were nearly depleted. Fortunately the supplies brought in by the additional parties would tide over the hungry Toons as they dug in and continued to wait for Deputy Skids to return so they could finish up the party and send everyone home.
"Arrrgh, this be quite the estate ya got here. Awfully nice, sure beats my shack in Donald's Dock, harr harr." Scurvy explored, prodding furniture and other things they found interesting.
"Oh, come on babe. You have a lovely shack... although maybe we could look at a new estate?" Melville followed behind his fiancee and continued to tease them.
The yellow monkey seizing an opportunity noodled through until she could meet with Flippy. Anna was a staunch follower of the blue dog and had looked up to him as a role model from a young age. "Mr. Flippy. I can't believe that I actually get the chance to meet you! Anna Banana! I'm a huge fan! You know, because of you I have really wanted to get into politics!"
Flippy patted the monkey on the back. "That is fantastic! Keep your head up and work hard and someday maybe you will be mayor. Now, if you excuse me I see my old friend Chip and I need to go talk to him!" Slinking away, Flippy held out his hand and called out. "Chip! You old pumpkin killer, what are you doing here?"
"This party is a real dud. Where are all the sprouts at?" The green crocodile rubbed her stomach and growled at John, the only other crocodile at the party. "Someone really needs to do something about that!"
"Oh, hush and just have some cake, Sprout." Bloople patted the shorter Toon on the head, drawing her ire. "So Romeo, you mentioned a cupcake shop. That sounds fantastic. Me and Clover will bring the girls by sometime! "
Deputy Skids who had finally returned back to the party, now numb from constantly being outside in the freezing wind and snow struggled to push open the door against the resistance of an estate packed to the brim with forty-two Toons. Finally getting in with his new bag of gifts, he sighed. "You know what, I give up." Dropping off the gifts, he walked over to Cupcake and yelled over the loud room. "Hey! Guess who I ran into on my way back from the store!" Pointing towards the door, Cupcake was elated when she saw the short green mouse. "Really had to convince her to come!"
"Guacamole! Great to see you!" Cupcake yelled, gathering the attention of Brownie and Matzoh, both who ran over to greet her.
"Why didn't you tell me you were coming tonight? I would have put on my best shorts." The short brown mouse twisted his whisker anxiously.
The green mouse pushed him out of the way, going to talk to the skinny purple cat. "Hey, Matzoh. Kind of surprised you got lured into something like this too. Do they have anything to drink here? I hate crowds."
"Yeah, come on follow me. I think there's hard seltzer in the kitchen." Brownie sank down, disappointed at his unrequited attraction. Calypso walked over and patted the sad Toon on the head.
"Don't worry, buddy. When I first met my ex-wife she hated me. Well come to think of it, she hates me now too... So I guess that wasn't very good advice, sorry."
Mark, sensing Cupcake's anxiety, held out a megaphone that he had set aside for emergencies and began to conquer the room. "Alright everybody! I want everybody to line up in a single-file line. We are going to start opening presents. I want it to be nice and easy. Everybody will get one present! If you don't have a present, well I guess you can be first for a cookie. Now, I would like to start with the invited guests first." Ignoring the Telemarketer, the Toons pushed and shoved to be first in line. Eventually the order had been set, with many Toons who hadn't even planned on being here getting in line just on the chance of getting a cookie that they could have gotten for free. Walking over to the tree, Flippy thanked Mark and smiled at everyone.
"Thanks everyone. I'm so happy to have everybody here tonight. I couldn't ask for a better group of Toons to spend Christmas with." Looking around, he elbowed the air and spoke in a hushed tone. "Don't tell anybody else I said that though." The Toons guffawed and allowed him to finish. "I know that we have a nice, set line here, but I hope everybody would be okay if our first gift of the night goes to our good friend Mark. As this is his first official Christmas as a member of Toontown, and a cherished friend and soon to be son, would everybody be okay with that?
The Toons broke out cheering, causing Mark to turtle up, embarrassed. Turning a bright red, he walked over to join the blue dog. "Thank you, sir. I apologize everybody, I promise I won't take very long." Grabbing a small box from Cupcake, he held it near his ear and rattled it lightly. The cube was expertly wrapped in a silver sheet of paper, decorated with tiny gears. "Wow, I'm not sure what this could be."
"Go ahead, open it!" Deputy grinned with the intensity of a thousand suns. "That one may or may not be from me." Turning to face the rest of the Toons he nodded. "I'll show you guys why I'm the King of Christmas."