The moment he strolled through the front door and made his way towards the kitchen, he was hit with the cheerful scent of something baking in the oven. Emmitt Otterton walked into that part of the house to see his wife and his two children in the process of making batches of sugar cookies.

The counters looked like they were an assembly line, with each of them assigned to a different step when it came to creating and decorating the confections. He looked at what was cooling on the rack in front of him, gazing at the array of candy cane, Christmas tree, and snowflake-shaped goodies awaiting their coating of frosting and sprinkles.

After she determined that they cool enough to be handled, Mrs. Otterton started to hand over some of the unfrosted cookies for decoration. The kids, with joyful grins on their muzzles, worked together as they were given to them, one on frosting duty and the other in charge of applying the sprinkles.

"Hey, honey," Mrs. Otterton greeted. "You're home early."

Emmitt nodded his head. "Yeah, we just decided to close up the shop a little earlier. You wouldn't believe how quickly we cleared that poinsettia display we set a few days ago. Those flowers were sellin' like hot cakes."

"They are a Christmas staple," his wife replied. Shifting the subject, she added, "And speaking of Christmas staples, we're gettin' the cookies ready for our annual tradition."

Upon hearing that remark from her, Emmitt smiled like a kit on Christmas morning. Their family tradition that she spoke of was delivering baked goods to some of their friends and neighbors that lived around the Rainforest District. Mrs. Otterton always enjoyed doing kind and friendly gestures towards others within their area, especially around this time of year. And what better was there to spread the much-needed holiday cheer than through delicious baked goods?

Emmitt looked over at his two pups, one of them handing a cookies a good coat of green frosting for the other to finish. Just as the sprinkles were being applied, the lid within the container popped off. What followed was a surplus of rainbow-colored sprinkles falling onto the cookie, and the child looked at it with disappointment.

"Uh-oh…" the otter pup said.

"No need to worry, son," Emmitt replied, walking around and stepping into the kitchen. "That one'll be mine, if you don't mind. I happen to love sprinkles."

The three giggled at his remark. He picked up the cookie that was more-than-sprinkled and took a bite of it. Sprinkles started to fall onto the floor as he enjoyed the taste of the homemade confection.

"They taste alright, dear?" Mrs. Otterton asked.

"Alright?" her husband said back. "Honey, these are amazing. Even better than last year's batch."

"But you say that every year."

"And it's the truth. The taste of these brings back so many good memories."

The two kids continued to work on the last few cookies that were brought to them, and their mother went to the other side of the kitchen to get the festive bags ready for them to go in. Sister and little brother summed things up with their finishing touches, and even ended up having a good bit of each color of frosting left over.

"Hey, Finn," the older of the two pups said, getting her younger brother's attention. "Come over here."

Just then, the little boy found his nose getting a small dollop of sugary white frosting upon. "Eva!" Finn giggled.

Getting them more than excited than they already were, Emmitt said to the kids, "You two excited to go deliver some cookies this year or what?"

"Yeah!" they both exclaimed to him.

Their excitement for their holiday tradition was music to his ears.

The door with the mesh wreath hanging on it slowly opened, revealing a capybara standing there. Upon seeing the Otterton family standing on her little front porch, her face lit up with a great amount of excitement.

"Oh my gosh, I was just thinking about you guys," she said. Just as the taller figure of a lion became visible through the doorway, she turned around and added, "I'm having some friends over for a little Christmas party, so I'm just getting things prepared.

Mrs. Otterton, looking at the feline within her view, asked, "Is that Janna?"

The lion simply waved to the otter from where she stood before walking away.

"Well, anyway, just wanted to drop these off. Hope they make a nice inclusion to your party food."

The lutrine handed the capybara a bag with a few of their cookies inside from the container she had in her paws.

The caviid smiled back at her. "Oh, I know that they're gonna love these."

The Ottertons exchanged their holiday wishes, and waved her goodbye as they continued to stroll down the street. The lush and soothing scenery that could only be witnessed in the district enveloped them around every corner.

The family was reaching the end of their baked good deliveries, but they had a good bit left over. It was as if they ended up whipping up more than they needed.

Just then, Emmitt heard two familiar voices growing more audible from around the corner. The pairing of fox and rabbit approached him and waved as they continued to walk along, paw in paw.

"Nick, Judy," Emmitt greeted, "just the two mammals I was hopin' to see."

"Merry Christmas, you guys," Judy replied.

The otter smiled. "Same to you and your companion." As Mrs. Otterton handed him the container, he continued, "My wife baked some Christmas cookies, and we're goin' around to give them to some folks and spread a little cheer. Would you guys be interested in some? To be honest, we have a lot more left over than anticipated."

His russet tail wagging, Nick replied for his bunny, "Absolutely! There's never been time that this fox has turned some kind of sweet treat, 'specially around this time of the year."

Emmitt reached in and gave the two teach their own bag of what was left over. He put on a grin as he watched the vulpine try to get the bag he had in his paw open, with him receiving a nudge to the shoulder from the lagomorph to his right.

"Wait 'til we get back home, Slick," Judy suggested.

Nick pretended to let out a sigh. "Alright, Carrots," he muttered in reply.

After the two walked away from where they were standing, Emmitt smiled. "One more stop," he said to himself, his wife able to overhear his words. "Last but definitely not least."

Mrs. Otterton asked, "Where to next, honey?"

"When I got off the phone with him a few days ago, Manchas was tellin' me he didn't really have anyone to celebrate the holidays with. I'd say we better go over to his place and deliver some Christmas cheer."