Blaine and Kurt had a new life lesson that they had just learned. Baking is hard, but baking with three kids is damn near impossible. It was a new tradition that both Blaine and Kurt were excited to do. Kurt had baked Christmas cookies with his mom before she died and he continued to bake them for his Dad after his mom was gone. Blaine had been baking with his mom and grandma since he was little. Cooper had never been interested in baking, but Blaine loved it. Penny was eight now and Charlie and Caleb were five, so they were at a good age to start helping.
"Okay guys." Kurt said to their three children who were each sitting on a barstool at their kitchen counter. "We're going to start with sugar cookies first. This is Nana's recipe."
"Who wants to help Daddy go and get the cookie sheets?" Blaine asked.
"I will!" Charlie said immediately. Blaine gave Kurt a smile before he and Charlie ventured into the garage to grab the metal cookie sheets.
"Penny and Caleb, you can help me get the materials together." Kurt told them. The two kids nodded and walked over to the pantry and fridge where they gathered the materials for the cookies. When Blaine and Charlie had returned all the ingredients were sitting on the counter. "Okay, so first we need to preheat the oven to 375 degrees."
"I'll do that!" Caleb said immediately.
"Thank you buddy but Daddy and I are going to do everything with the oven since it's dangerous." Kurt told him. Caleb set his lips into a firm pout and crossed his arms.
"Caleb, bud, you can help me get the dry ingredients like the flour, baking soda and baking powder." Blaine said, trying to get him excited again. Caleb reluctantly walked over and joined Blaine.
"Alright girls, you and I will need to get together some more ingredients. I need the butter and sugar." Kurt told them.
"I got it!" Both girls said. They raced over to the ingredients and both grabbed onto the bag of sugar.
"I'm getting it!" Charlie yelled at her sister.
"I was here first!" Penny retorted, not loosening her grip on the bag of sugar.
"Girls, I need two things. You can each bring me something." Kurt said, trying to break up the fight. The girls gave each other glares and finally Penny released her grip and grabbed the butter instead. Then they walked the ingredients over to Kurt. Kurt put them in the bowl and started stirring the ingredients
Just across the kitchen, Caleb and Blaine had made progress on getting the dry ingredients together. Caleb had just finished measuring out 2 ¾ cups of flour into a bowl. "Good job buddy!" Blaine said as he extended his son a high-five. "Now we just need baking soda and baking powder." He looked around on the counter and didn't see them.
"Kurt, where is the baking soda and powder?" he called.
"Oh, I knew I forgot to get something out. Check under the island. They might be there." Blaine nodded and went to look. He started taking things out from the cabinet but wasn't seeing them.
"I'll help!" Caleb exclaimed. However, he moved too fast and before he knew it the bowl of flour was knocked off the counter and landed right on top of Blaine's head. "Uh oh…" Kurt after hearing the commotion looked over just as Blaine was standing up. He was white from head to toe and it took everything in Kurt not to laugh.
"Achoo!" Blaine sneezed as he breathed in the flour. He began dusting himself off.
"Daddy, I'm sorry." Caleb said softly. "It was an accident."
"I know buddy." Blaine said to comfort his son. He was in no way happy that he was currently covered in flour, but he knew that his son did not do it deliberately.
"Hey bud, why don't you come over with me and help your sisters while Daddy goes and cleans up." Kurt told him. Caleb nodded and joined his father and sisters. Blaine gave a look to Kurt and Kurt let out a little laugh.
"This is not funny." Blaine mouthed before heading to the laundry room to take off his flour covered clothes and grab new ones. Meanwhile the butter and sugar that the girls had brought were creamed together.
"Now, we need to add the egg and vanilla." Kurt said.
"I can crack the egg." Penny said immediately.
"I want to do it." Charlie retorted.
"You're too little!" Penny replied. "Watch, I can do it perfectly." Before Kurt could stop her, she grabbed the egg and cracked it on the counter and threw the whole thing, shell and all into the mixing bowl.
"Honey, when you crack an egg, you only put the inside in." Kurt said as he tried to pick out the tiny bits of eggshell. He was out of luck though. Penny really had cracked the egg...into about a million pieces that were now in the dough. They would need to start over. Kurt gathered the materials and did them himself and started the next batch when Blaine came in.
"I thought you already did that." Blaine said, parts of his hair still white from the flour.
"There was a mistake…" Kurt said. "We're on round two." Blaine didn't ask anymore questions. They started work on the second batch and it went a little more smoothly than the first. All the right ingredients were put into the mix and nothing was spilled. Penny and Charlie still continued to fight over who got to do things, but that was unavoidable. Soon enough, the dough was finished and they got started on the process of making the cutouts.
"Alright kids, let's start rolling out our dough and make cookies." Kurt said. All three kids went to the kitchen table where Kurt gave each of them their own little ball of dough. Everything was finally going okay. The kids were getting along and the cookies were actually getting made. It wasn't long before Kurt put the first batch in the oven. Then he heard the familiar noise of his daughters fighting.
"I need those red sprinkles!" Charlie yelled at her sister.
"You had them for forever!" Penny retorted. "It's my turn."
"Give them to me!" Charlie whined as she tried to take the sprinkles out of her sister's hands. Penny yanked the bottle away and Kurt and Blaine watched as Charlie got angrier. Charlie had quite the temper and before they could get to her, she, with all of her might, smacked her sister across the face.
"Charlie!" They both scolded as Penny began to wail. Blaine scooped up his older daughter and held her in his arms, while Kurt grabbed his other daughter and tried to take her to the corner for a timeout.
"I don't wanna go in timeout!" Charlie screamed. She kicked her feet and threw her head back in protest as Kurt practically dragged her to the corner.
"You are in timeout because you hurt your sister." Kurt told her. "You have to stay here for five minutes." Charlie stuck out her tongue and blew raspberries at Kurt to show her disapproval at the timeout. Kurt had to walk away as he felt his own temper begin to flare up. Out of all of their children, Charlie knew how to push his buttons the most. He walked back over to where Blaine had Penny on his lap. "How is she?"
"She'll live. Charlie got her good though." Blaine said as he turned the little girl around. Kurt looked at his daughter's face and on her cheek was a large red welt.
"Oh honey, Papa will get you some ice." Kurt said as he went to the freezer and pulled out and ice pack. He walked it back over to Blaine and Penny and Blaine held the ice on his daughter's cheek.
"Do you want to try talking to Charlie? I don't think she'll be very receptive to me." Kurt said. Blaine nodded and handed Penny over to Kurt who sat down on the chair with her. Blaine looked at the clock. Five minutes was up. He walked over to the corner where Charlie was and took a seat.
"So, do you think what you did to your sister was very nice?" Blaine asked.
"No." the five year old replied.
"We've talked about hitting before." Blaine reminded her. "It is a very mean thing to do to someone."
"She wouldn't give me the sprinkles." Charlie said to try and defend herself.
"Well, I didn't hear you ask her very nicely." Blaine reminded her. "Maybe next time we can use our nice words and Penny will be nice too and let you have the sprinkles."
"I guess…"
"So what do you think you should do to your sister?" Blaine asked. "She has a pretty big welt on her face from where you hit her." Charlie shrugged her shoulders. She was such a stubborn child. "Well, I think an apology would be a good start." he told her. When Charlie didn't look like she wanted to move, Blaine gave her a look and said, "Go on." The five year old got up and walked over to Penny and Kurt.
"I'm sorry that I hit you." she said quietly.
"It's okay." Penny replied.
"Can you girls give each other a hug?" Kurt prompted. The two girls did what they were told and gave one another a quick hug. Suddenly, Kurt felt a tug on his sleeve and he saw Caleb. He was always the quiet one.
"Papa, are the cookies done yet?" he asked in a sweet little voice. Kurt felt his stomach drop. The cookies… He took a sniff in and smelled the smoke.
"Crap!" Kurt said as he ran towards the oven. He threw on his oven mitt and grabbed at the tray. He was too late. The cookies were burnt and to make matters worse when he was pulling the tray out of the oven, he hit his hand on the rack and burned it. "Oww! Shit!" he yelled as he threw the tray into the sink, sending the burnt cookies falling.
"Kurt? Are you okay?" Blaine asked as he ran into the kitchen.
"Ahh, I burned my hand." Kurt hissed as he turned on the cold water and stuck his hand underneath the stream.
"Papa said a bad word." Penny said from the table. "He has to put a dollar in the swear jar."
"Blaine-" Kurt didn't even need to finish his sentence. Blaine knew his husband was about to blow up.
"Kids, go and get your pajamas on now." Blaine said. The three kids reluctantly went to their bedrooms. Kurt and Blaine were left alone in the kitchen. "Is it bad?" he asked.
"I'll be fine. It just hurts." Kurt replied. Blaine got his husband an ice pack, the only one that was left in the freezer considering they had already used their other one. "We are never baking Christmas cookies again. This was a disaster!"
"Agree." Blaine replied.
A few days later, it was Christmas and the whole family was over. "Kurt, what happened to your hand?" Carole asked as she looked at his bandage.
"Oh, Blaine and I tried making Christmas cookies with the kids...it didn't go well." he answered. "We thought it would be a fun tradition...but the kids were awful." Burt and Pam both started laughing.
"What? What's so funny?" Blaine asked.
"Kurt, you were a menace to your mother." Burt laughed. "There were some years that she just gave up because it was so difficult."
"What are you talking about? I was a great help to mom!" Kurt retorted. Blaine laughed at his husband.
"I wouldn't be laughing Blainey!" Pam said. "You were awful to make cookies with. It always took twice as long because all you wanted to do was dance around the kitchen."
"Mom!" Blaine yelled.
"Your grandmother wanted to kill you too." Pam replied. "If I hadn't been there, she might have strangled you with her bare hands."
"Grandma never would have done that!" Blaine replied. "Well if we were so bad, why did you continue to do it every year?"
"You make traditions for your kids." Pam replied. "And even though I hated it every year, I knew you loved it and that was all that mattered." In that instant Kurt and Blaine felt like awful parents. They had thrown in the towel so early. Maybe next they would try to make Christmas cookies again...no matter how unbearable it was.