Chapter Five
“Your nose is as red as Rudolph’s. It’s time to go inside, baby girl.”
I looked up at Daddy from the pile of snow that I was making into my princess castle. I was almost finished! All I needed to do was build the drawbridge and moat.
“But can’t we stay out here for two more minutes, please,” I begged him.
“No. It’s time to go in right now. I don’t want you to freeze.”
Standing up, I knew that there’d be no way to change his mind. “Fine.” I rolled my eyes and turned toward the door when I felt a smack on my ass. Whipping my head around, I saw that Daddy had his arms crossed over his chest and he had a stern look on his face.
My jaw dropped open. How had he moved so fast? He was hands down the fastest spanker in the Midwest!
“Watch that attitude, missy.”
“Yes, Sir.”
I rubbed my backside; thankfully, his stroke didn’t hurt that badly since I had my snow pants on. It’d be nice to be able to wear these snow pants every time I received a punishment spanking.
We entered through our laundry room door. The heat felt wonderful as it warmed my frozen nose.
“Let me help you get your clothes off.”
I nodded as he pulled my pink gloves off, followed by my hat and scarf. “There’s my little girl,” he chuckled as he gave me an Eskimo kiss. I pulled my head back when his cold nose touched mine.
“Hey! You’re frozen too,” I complained as he removed my coat.
“I guess I am. That’s why we had to come inside.” He helped me take off my boots and snow pants. Finally, I was back in my normal clothes and I felt great! Wearing wet clothing that was cold wasn’t fun.
“Would you like some hot chocolate, sweetie?” he asked as he removed his own snow gear.
“Yes, please!”
I danced off to the kitchen and went to the cupboard where my favorite mug was. It was white with a cute brown puppy on it.
“Did you get your dog mug, baby girl?”
“Yep!” I showed it to him. He smiled as he took the cup from me and set it by the mug that he’d pulled for himself.
He poured some water into the teakettle, set it over the flame on the stove to heat it, and turned back toward me.
“Why don’t we bring the gingerbread cookies and the gingerbread house over to the table, while we wait for the water to heat up.”
“All right!”
I grabbed one of the baking sheets, while Daddy brought two.
I sat at the kitchen table as he brought the gingerbread house kit over to me.
“So, what do you want to start with? The men or the house?”
I looked at him, shocked. “There are gingerbread women too, not just men!”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, sweetie. So, do you want to start with the house or the gingerbread men and women?” He added extra emphasis when he said the ‘men and women.’
“The women!”
“Let’s have this half be women and the other be the men,” he declared, making two piles of six each.
I picked one of the girls up first and looked at the naked cookie, trying to figure out how I wanted to decorate her.
I put a strand of red licorice for her hair and a tiny piece for her smile. Then I put two small M she wears a long shirt and a pair of panties to bed.”
“You mean, she wears her papa’s shirts to bed, instead of her pajamas?”
“Yep!” I said, nodding enthusiastically.
“Then you should probably make a papa gingerbread man.”
That was such a smart idea! There couldn’t be a little girl cookie without a daddy cookie.
“I’ll do that now.”
I grabbed another blank cookie. I took a piece of licorice and took a bite out of it so he could have short hair.
Placing the short string of licorice on top, I then reached for three gumdrops to put on his chest. Those were going to be buttons, for his button-up shirt. I gave the gingerbread two M&Ms for his eyes and four M&Ms for his mouth. Finally, I broke apart a Hershey’s chocolate bar and used the small pieces of chocolate for the daddy’s pants.
“What do you think of this one? This is my gingerbread’s papa.”
“He looks like a very nice guy.”
“Yeah, except if his little girl misbehaves, then her daddy has to be super firm with her and give her a punishment.”
Daddy laughed as the kettle began to whistle. “It sounds like our water is done. Keep decorating, sweetie. I’ll bring you hot chocolate.”
I grabbed another gingerbread cookie and decided that this one was going to be another boy. I gave him pretty much the same outfit as the first one. A girl could only be so creative.
“Thank you,” I muttered, not bothering to look up when a mug of hot chocolate was set down next to me.
I continued decorating, giving my hot chocolate some time to cool. I had learned early on that I couldn’t drink it right away or else I would burn my mouth and that hurt really bad.
After I had finished six more cookies, I finally took a sip of my drink. He had put extra whipped cream on top, my favorite.
I giggled when I felt the cream land on my nose.
“Sweetie pie, please be more careful,” he chuckled as he wiped my nose.
“Sorry,” I apologized, smiling at him. I knew that he wasn’t really mad. If he had been, he wouldn’t have a big smile on his face.
“Would you like to start working on the gingerbread house, so the men and women have a house to live in?”
“Yeah!”
“Want me to help you?”
“Yes, please. We don’t want another disaster.”
Last year, even though I had followed the instructions to the tee, it didn’t matter. My roof slid off and the walls fell down. I had sobbed until Daddy had finally gotten some glue and pasted the walls and roof together so it wouldn’t fall again. It looked amazing, but the only downside to it was I couldn’t eat it then since he said that he didn’t want me to eat the glue on accident. So, he promised me that the upcoming year, he would help me build the gingerbread house first, so that didn’t happen again.
“All right, baby girl. Let’s get to work.”
* * *
“You are a mess, sweetheart.”
Glancing down at myself, I could see what he meant. I had frosting all over my apron. Thankfully, none had landed on my sweater. My hands looked like I had dyed each of my fingers different colors. And underneath my nails, I had small sugar beads. I couldn’t even imagine what my face looked like.
“Here, let me wash you.”
Daddy came over to me with a wet paper towel in his hand. Ugh, I hated when he ran the moist cloth over my face. It felt so uncomfortable. I tried to turn my head away so he wouldn’t be able to wash it, but he still managed to reach it.
“No! No more,” I cried as he finished with my face and went to wash my fingers. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t let me take a bath. That would get all the sugar off of me.
“We’re almost done. After this, how about if we watch a movie and relax a little?”
“Can we watch Arthur’s Perfect Christmas ?” I asked as he pulled my apron over my head.
“Of course, baby girl. Why don’t you head into our bedroom and we can watch it up there?”
“All righty.”
I headed upstairs, thinking about how exciting it would be to watch this movie. It had come out when I was in first grade and it had been an instant classic for me. As silly as it sounded, my favorite part of the entire show was the first minute. I loved the opening scene because the music was so pretty and you could see Elwood City all decorated and ready for Christmas.
When I made it to my bedroom, I grabbed my Piglet doll and cuddled with him under the covers. I was a tiny bit cold and I wanted to huddle with my favorite stuffie.
“You and Piglet ready to watch this movie?”
“You betcha!”
He grabbed the remote and sat on the edge of the bed as he found the movie I wanted underneath our saved DVR programs.
Before he pressed play, he snuggled underneath the covers and pulled me close to him, so we were cuddling. It felt nice to be cuddled up next to my daddy. He was big and super warm and I knew that nothing could harm me when I was with him.
He finally started the movie and my favorite part began.
Ten minutes after the movie began, my eyes started to get pretty heavy. I tried to keep them open, but I finally fell asleep around the time that Arthur and his mom finished their Christmas shopping.