Edmonton, Alberta, Canada


On top of a kitchen countertop is a baking sheet with fresh, holiday-shaped sugar cookies. Surrounding the baking sheet are bowls and piping bags of icing and smaller bowls of candies.

Standing behind the countertop is Kailer Yamamoto, with Stuart Skinner to his left and Jesse Puljujärvi to his right. All three of them have their own holiday sweaters on; Kailer wears an elf hat while Stuart and Jesse wear scarves.

“Thank you, gentlemen, for joining me to decorate these lovely cookies!” Kailer beams up at them.

Stuart shoots him a smirk. “Of course, Yams! Anytime!”

Jesse gazes at the colourful decorating options with glimmering eyes. “There so many colors and candies!” he exclaims in his Finnish accent. He picks up a blue candy button from the bowl of candy buttons near him.

Kailer scowls at him. “Ah-ah-ah, not yet! Put that down!” He smacks his hand, causing him to drop the button back into its bowl.

The small skater then relaxes his expression and holds his hands out to the baking sheet. “Now, here are the cookies.” He then brings his hands out to the nearest bowl and piping bags. “And this is the royal icing.”

Stuart has a slight irritated look at him. “I think we know that—”

“BUT!” He holds up a piping bag. “This is the thick royal icing, perfect for outlining and drawing out designs. And this—” He puts down the bag and stirs the nearest bowl of icing with a spoon. “—is for coloring in the cookies.”

The goalie’s face drops. “Okay. Now that I didn’t know.”

Jesse points to the bowl of button candies with a growing grin. “And candies for decorating?”

Kailer nods at him. “Yes, you can use the candies to decorate! Simply place them on the wet icing or use the icing to glue them to the dried icing.”

Jesse screws up his face with closed eyes. “Icing dries?”

“Yes, that’s what royal icing does. It hardens in seconds.” He then takes nearby cup of water, pours a bit into a bowl of icing, and stirs it.

Jesse gazes at the blending mixture with understanding. “Ohhh...okay…!”

“Well—” Kailer drops the spoon into its place and whirls to the two. “Let’s get decorating!”

The three take their desired holiday-shaped sugar cookies.

Kailer inspects the candy cane-shaped cookie in his possession. “This should be delightful.” He grabs the red and white piping bags then carefully outlines the candy cane, alternating with the red and white icing.

“Can I have the white?” he hears Stuart ask from his left.

Kailer peers up at him, holding the white piping nozzle over his cookie. “For what?”

“For my snowman.” He points to the snowman-shaped cookie lying in front of him. “Snowmen are white.”

“Use the thin royal icing.” Kailer reaches out and pushes the bowl of white icing to him.

“Ah, okay!” Stuart pulls the bowl next to his cookie. He then gazes at his cookie. Then looks back at the icing. “Hmmm…”

“Just dip the front in the bowl if you want it completely white,” he hears Kailer comment.

He nods. “Okay…”

Stuart takes his cookie in one hand, gripping the edges against his fingertips. He lowers it into the bowl gradually. The cookie makes contact with the surface before plopping into the mixture.

“Oh, shoot!”

Stuart uses the spoon to push the white-blanketed cookie up against the edge. He pulls the cookie out of the bowl and gazes at it with a frown.

“Oh, whoops…”

He flicks his eyes down to Kailer’s work. Kailer embeds the candy cane with clean, diagonal white lines.

“Cute snowman!” he hears Jesse pipe up from his right.

Stuart gazes at him from above the small skater in the middle. He lets out a chuckles. “It doesn't even have a face yet.” He juts his stubble-covered chin toward the black piping bag across the counter. “Mind handing me that black pipe?”

“If I get white bowl” Jesse grins widely.

“Sure!” He places his white cookie to exchange the white bowl of icing for the black piping bag.

Jesse’s grin only stretches larger as he holds up the white icing bowl. “Good trade!”

The Finn then places the bowl by his round, blue-outlined cookie and spoons some of the liquid onto the cookie. He then plucks out blue candy buttons and arranges them on his wet cookie to make an “H.”

His eyes brighten at his finished cookie. “Täydellinen!” He then plucks another round cookie from the baking sheet and places it next to his finished one. He gazes around his station before turning to his left. He spots what he is looking for: the white piping bag on the other side of Kailer.

“Can I have white icing?” Jesse points to the bag.

Kailer perks up at him from pouring red icing on his cookie. “Certainly. I have just finished it.” He grabs the bag and places it in the Finn’s station. He then exchanges his red-coated spoon for a toothpick and drags the tip in the icing, covering the pale spots.

The small skater gazes down at his picture-perfect candy cane sugar cookie. “Splendid!” He gingerly transfers the cookie onto a nearby porcelain plate.

Next to him, Stuart glues his eye on the perfect candy cane sugar cookie. “Whoa. That’s really good.”

Kailer plucks a Christmas tree-shaped cookie and gazes up at him. “Why, thank you.” He then turns to his new cookie.

Stuart looks down at his cookie. His white, uneven snowman now has a smeared, disproportionate, black eyes and smile. There’s a black line on the top of the head, serving as the top hat.

“Wait…” Stuart takes an orange piping bag and aims the nozzle at the snowman’s head. With a squeeze of his hands, the orange icing squirts across its face.

He puts down the piping bag and frowns at the new addition. “Okay. So it’s a really long carrot.” He exchanges the orange piping bag for a yellow one. “Snowmen have three buttons…” He pumps uneven dots down the snowman’s belly. “And for the buttons…”

Stuart gazes beyond Kailer and spots the bowl of candy buttons beside Jesse. “Hey, Jesse, can I have the buttons?”

Jesse perks up at him with sadden surprise. “Oh! Uh...I need them…” His face dips into a sheepish grin.

The goalie keeps his eyes on the bowl. He notices that the bowl lacks white and blue buttons. “Okay, that’s cool.” He turns away from him.

The Finn looks down at his works. Lined in front of him are six round cookies, alternating between white with a blue outline and blue with a white outline. Each cookie holds a letter, spelling out a word in Finnish.

He points to each cookie as he says the letter in Finnish: “‘H,’ ‘Y,’ ‘Ä,’ ‘Ä,’ ‘J,’ ‘O…’ ja nyt…” His eyes light up. “‘...U!’”

Jesse shoots his hand out to the baking sheet. Yet he freezes. Misery overcomes his face.

There are no more round cookies in the baking sheet.

“Uh oh.” He gazes down at Kailer. “Uh, Yams, there anymore circle cookies?”

Kailer perks up from his star cookie. “Oh.” He peeks at the baking sheet’s options. “It appears those are all the round cookies I made.” He turns back to him.

“Oh no.” He dips his head.

“Why that expression?”

“I, uh...I need them.” Jesse points to his line of cookies.

Kailer leans forward to gaze at them. Confusion appears on his face. “What’s that supposed to say?”

“'Hyvää Joulua.' It 'Merry Christmas' in Finnish! But it only says 'Hyvää Jo.'” He whirls back to him. “It not done!”

Kailer gives him a subtle sympathetic expression. “Hmmm...should’ve thought about that ahead.”

“I finished up the cookies!” Stuart announces from behind the small skater.

Jesse peers ahead as Kailer turns around.

Stuart has a cookie in each of his raised hands: one cookie is black with a reindeer shape and the other one is angel-shaped with yellow skin and green details.

Kailer gawks at them. “What on earth?”

Behind him, Jesse smacks his hands over his growing smile and snickers.

The goalie groans with a roll of his eyes. “Okay, okay, so decorating baked goods isn’t my specialty.” He places the cookies on the plate. “I tried.”

Jesse holds his hands out from his sides. “I couldn’t spell ‘Hyvää Joulua’ because there weren’t enough cookies!”

Stuart looks beyond the small skater to gaze at the Finn’s predicament. “Ah, just pretend you ate them!”

With a hopeful expression, Jesse whirls to his cookies. He picks up the cookie with the “O” and takes a bite. His eyes light up. “Mmmm! Herkullinen!”

Kailer throws his palms up at him. “Wait! But we were supposed to have them with milk by the fire!”

Stuart eyes Kailer’s collection of picture-perfect cookies on the baking sheet. “You’re gonna eat your cookies?” He points to them and looks at their decorator. “They look too pretty to eat!”

Kailer places a pompous hand to his chest. “Why yes, although they are aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, they must be eaten.” He reverts his hand to the goalie’s cookies. “Now THOSE deserve to be eaten.”

Stuart picks up his oddly-colored angel and waves it in the air with a chuckle. “This is one unique angel indeed.”

“Well, let’s head to the fire now!” Kailer whirls around to take the plate of finished cookies. Yet he halts as Stuart gazes to their right with wide eyes.

Jesse is munching with crumbs on his puffed cheeks. His hands are covering his mouth with his eyes wide. And next to him, where his cookies used to be, are morsels.

Kailer holds an unamused expression. “You couldn’t wait.”

Jesse swallows and shakes his head. “They too good.” He picks up the bowl of candy buttons. “I have these with you guys.”

The small skater lets out a huff. “I’ll be regretting letting you eat those when you start bouncing off the walls in thirty minutes.”

Kailer scoops up the plate and breezes by the Finn. “Let’s go have our cookies!” He then exits the kitchen and disappears from view.

Jesse follows him toward the exit. Stuart catches up to him.

He holds up his now headless angel. “They are good!”

Jesse turns his head to him and nods while chewing with a bright, closed smile. His hand is in the bowl.

The two then exit the kitchen.


The End.

Notes

4 more days until Christmas!
9/12