Day Ten: Is Christmas the Cookie Monster's Favorite Holiday?

"There is something extremely satisfying about this," Carolyn said, taking a small break from smashing a bag of candy canes with a wooden mallet, "and I don't care what that says about me. The cookies are going to be delicious and I won't need to go to the gym later to blow off steam."

Having instinctively leaned away while the pounding was going on, Cam gave her an amused look. "Okay but we don't really need more crushed candy canes, and that's all we have, so if you need to smash more, you have to go buy some."

"I'm good," she said, beaming at him. "I can help with something else when I'm done with this."

"Your boyfriend told me to do something with these butterscotch candies," Jack said from the other end of the island in Daniel's kitchen, where they'd all gathered because he had the best ovens for cookie baking, "but honestly I wasn't really listening so maybe they need pulverized too."

"They do," Cam confirmed, laughing when Carolyn said she'd do them next.

Jack sat back on his stool while Sam mixed the dough for their butterscotch cookies and crossed his arms over his chest. "I hope you're not offended, Mitchell, that I'm amused by the fact that you're in charge of this cookie baking event we've got going on. I never would have guessed it. No offense."

He was still getting used to the idea of bantering with a general, and considering one a friend, but it was getting easier. "None taken, since I saw you feeding your kitten, that you brought with you, one piece of kibble at a time by hand."

It didn't bother Jack a bit that he'd been seen doing that. "She's too little to leave home alone," he said with a shrug, watching as Carolyn pushed the bag of crushed candy canes toward Cam and reached for the butterscotch candy. "So, Carolyn, can I ask why you're not really helping with any of the actual cookie making?"

"You mean like mixing ingredients and things?" she asked, mallet held still in her hand. "Because I assume you want the cookies to be edible and I have never baked a cookie that was truly edible. It's like a curse. Three people in my dorm got treated for food poisoning after I made cookies in college."

"I'm sure they couldn't prove it was your cookies," Daniel offered supportively.

Carolyn shrugged, unbothered by having to admit her limitations. "Still, though, it's better I help with things like this. I'm good with that. Everybody has their skills, and mine is not cookie baking."

"Mine either," Jack said, seeing an official out and taking it. "Happy to eat the cookies after, though."

Sam shook her head and started scooping balls of dough with the melon baller, depositing them on the baking sheet. "Well, I'm not the best at making cookies but it's not going to stop me. I never thought of using a melon baller, though. Maybe now my cookies won't be so misshapen."

"That's the idea, Sam," Cam pointed out with a wink. "Sometimes it makes cookies that are far too small for my personal preference but since we're donating these to that shelter, we should probably make them look semi-professional."

"We're not donating them all," Jack pointed out, or decided depending on how you looked at it. "I'm not helping make all these cookies and not getting cookies as payment."

Daniel paused the container of flour over a measuring cup. "But you're not actually helping."

"Yes, I am. I'm helping Carolyn blow off steam by letting her do my job. And Sam wants to do that other part. Sometimes the doing is all in what you're willing to not do."

"You're such an idiot," Daniel said, laughing as he rolled his eyes.