The gingerbread house was a holiday specialty and a beloved tradition to the Hopps family. Starting back when Judy was a young doe, the family would get together to create the sweet construction. It wasn't exactly a simplistic task, as they used her great-grandmother's recipe for gingerbread cookie dough instead of buying one of those kits they sold at the store, but they enjoyed every moment making it together.

Everybody had a role when it came to making the gingerbread house, the same way they would all have a part in building an actual construction. Her mother would be the one to make the gingerbread dough, and she would often lend a paw in the kitchen by helping her mix ingredients. Her father, once it was ready to be assembled, would be he one to put the pieces together with icing. And once that was done, Judy and her siblings would take short turns at doing what they enjoyed the most: Decorating it.

With whatever gumdrops or festive candies they had in their pantry, they would always have a blast putting their individual touches to the gingerbread house. Their decorations they placed on wouldn't exactly be the most organized, with candies being covering just about every inch of it, but her mother always would tell them that it looked "almost to pretty to eat."

One hadn't been made in their burrow for quite some time, but when Judy came back to visit the family for the holidays, that changed. When she had arrived back home, they had asked her what she wanted to do to make the celebration bright, despite the fact that the inside of the house was pretty much an explosion of holiday cheer. After a long pause, she then remembered the memories from when she was little, and with a smile mentioned making a gingerbread house.

The tradition carried on, but a little bit differently than before. While her mother still did the making of the dough, Judy was now the one who did the construction. The youngest of her siblings, who were right around the age she was one she made her first gingerbread house, were given the ability to decorate however they pleased.

And last but certainly not least, there was someone new participating in the holiday activity. A certain fox she brought with her on their annual trip to Bunnyburrow, to be exact.

Speaking of which, she thought, where is he?

He was decorating the gingerbread when she saw him last, but he wasn't there when she came back from the other room. Even though it wasn't like he was going to just leave the burrow on a whim, she still was curious as to where he went.

Judy glimpsed at the gingerbread house that some of her siblings were busy ornamenting with candies. A rainbow of colored sprinkles could be seen on the front of it where icing had been applied, as well as on the table where it had spilled. Sprinkles, as she could see, was something they really enjoyed based on how much was on it at the moment.

"Lookin' good, guys," the doe told her siblings. "Really colorful!"

The young ones at the table giggled as they continued to work on the decorating, warming Judy's heart with their smiles and enthusiasm.

"That roof's gonna need some shingles. I'l be right back with something you can use."

Carefully making her way passed the table, Judy made her way over to where the kitchen was.

"Nick?" she called as she walked over there, looking around for the vulpine.

As she walked into the spacious kitchen, she found him, along with two of her younger brothers. What she was not expecting to see, however, was the fox currently the ingredients that were meant for decorating.

"Nick!" she exclaimed in that moment. "What are you doing?"

Standing beside the kitchen counters, covered with dirty mixing bowls and utensils after making the dough, Nick held a glass dish filled with bite-sized squares of both dark and white chocolate. It appeared that he had eaten several of them from out of the bowl, as she could that he had some of the chocolate sloppily on his face. Not only that, but it also appeared to be on the faces of her brothers as well.

The fox looked over at his bunny with widened eyes, going completely still like a metaphorical deer in headlights. He wiped the chocolate from off of his mouth and let out a small chuckle before saying, "Carrots, I didn't see you there..."

"Hey, Judy," one of her siblings chimed in.

"Caught in the act," the other buck standing there said, as if he knew they were going to get caught.

"What are you doing?" Judy said to them.

"Guess what, sis? Uncle Nick can throw chocolate in the air and catch it in his mouth!" answered the buck on the fox's left.

"Told them we'd get caught!" added her other brother, who stood on the opposite side of the kitchen, shaking his head.

"You guys are eating all of the shingles!" the doe responded.

"These aren't shingles." Nick looked down at the contents inside of the dish and then back at the doe. "I'm fairly certain these are chocolate pieces."

"The shingles for the gingerbread house, you goof," replied Judy with a small chuckle. That was very much like her fox; always up to some sort of silly shenanigan. She walked over to him and took the bowl from out of his paws. "We'll have to see if there's enough to put on the roof of it."

There wasn't the same amount in the bowl that was in it when it had been placed there, but there was still enough for decorating. Judy walked out of the kitchen and made her way over to the table, where the gingerbread house's accessorizing was still underway. She set the bowl in front of the young bucks and does still working on it, pulling herself a chair and taking a seat.

"Here's the shingles I promised," she said to them.

The little paws of her siblings dug into the bowl, and they quickly ot to work on applying "shingles" to the roof of the gingerbread house. The pattern of it consisted of mismatched rows, with a piece of white chocolate visible after very few pieces of dark chocolate. The bowl, however, was getting empty much quicker than it should have, and there was still a small area that hadn't been decorated.

"Uh-oh..."
"Is that all that's left?"
"We don't have enough chocolate."

"Wonder where some of it went," Judy said to her little siblings, quickly looking over at Nick.

The fox remained silent as he stood there, but not for long when an idea came into his head. "I've got it!" he remarked. "I have the solution to the gingerbread dilemma."

"What's that?" his bunny wondered.

"First things first," the tod replied, "I shouldn't have ate from it. I take full responsibility for that."

"That is true," Judy replied, nodding her head.

"Anyway," Nick continued, "I figured out what we can do." He looked over at the gray doe and asked, "Will you please hand me that bowl? I promise none are getting eaten."

"Okay," she said with a small laugh, slowly handing him the glass dish.

"Thank you, Judy," he replied with a smile, walking over to the other side of the table and looking at the undecorated spot on the gingerbread house's roof.

Nick quietly worked with the last pieces of chocolate before turning it around for the others to see what he had done. All of the chocolate was on it, but there was little slivers of gingerbread visible where he hadn't covered it. "You see those free spaces?" he said, pointing to them with a claw. "With just a little imagination, those look like wear on the roof. Or maybe those pieces were on the roof, but they blew off somehow."

All of Judy's siblings agreed, nodding their heads at the fox's imaginative idea.

"Oh, I see it!" one of the bucks at the table said with glee.

"Yeah!" added another. "Maybe it was a candy storm that messed the roof up."

"A candy storm?" Nick inquired, holding a paw against his chin and tapping it.

"Mhmm," was the reply he got from the little buck. "There was peppermint hail, and it hit the roof really hard."

The vulpine grinned, making his way over to where Judy sat and pulling out his own seat.

"That was really imaginative, Slick," his bunny complimented. "Next time, though, we'll make sure all of the candies and stuff aren't left unattended."

"Good call, Fluff," he agreed. "Good call."