Snow and Christmas Cookies

     The air was chilly, snow was falling, and Christmas was getting near. Today, the snow was falling gently in big flakes. It was a good day to be outside or inside. In fact, nearly everybody was alternating between being outside and inside, which made both of them better. You could go outside and work or play in the snow and then come in and get toasty warm again by the fire and maybe get some hot chocolate, hot cider, or cookies (or all three). The wizard was tromping around the barnyard getting chores done, Buster the dog was following along, and a few of the dragons were playing in the snow. The snowflakes were so big that they made flying a bit of a challenge for the little dragons. They dodged and wheeled and rolled through the air, trying to miss all the snowflakes. Sometimes they managed to miss all of the snowflakes on one flight. Other times, they got hit smack in the face with a big, fluffy, icy, wet cluster of flakes. And sometimes they tried a little too hard, spun out of control, and did a marvelous face-plant into the snowy ground. 
 

     Aeglos was enjoying seeing the snow again and so was Blueberry. Flicker had hardly seen any snow before. Some of the other little dragons had all hatched in the spring, summer, or fall, and they’d never seen any snow at all! They were jumping, flying, and trying to run through it, tasting it, throwing it at each other, wrestling, dodging the tiny snowballs Blueberry was throwing at everyone... Neville, Eustace, Dominic, and Lucas, some of the oldest hatchlings, were having a snowball fight in mid-air, catching the snow as it fell, forming snowballs, and pelting each other.

     Inside, a few other dragons were drying off and warming up. The whole house smelled good because cookies were baking. The wizard’s wife was a great baker, and she always made a huge selection of Christmas cookies. Many were given away, but many were kept for the family as well. Today, gingerbread cookies were being baked and decorated. Two girl dragons, Arianne and Pearl, were helping. Arianne had come back from spending the summer with the wizard’s niece, and Pearl had hatched only a few days ago. She had hatched next to the jewelry box on another snowy, icy day – one of those days when the snow sparkles as if it’s been strewn with a thousand diamonds.

     Pearl looked different from the other dragons. She was all white and covered with delicate, shimmery swirls. She was having fun decorating some of the cookies with similar swirls. It was entertaining watching the tiny dragon working on the cookies that were as big as herself.

      Another dragon was in the kitchen as well, but he hadn’t hatched yet. The egg was still pure white. It had been seen in the window box outside the kitchen window. Dragons are usually fine hatching outside on a cold day (like Aeglos), but everyone always felt better when the eggs were brought into the warmth if they were found on a winter day.

     After a couple hours of cookie making (and chasing away of Blueberry and some of the boy dragons who liked playing the game “let’s try to be a nuisance in the kitchen”), Arianne looked at the egg and squealed, “Oh, look! Look at the egg!”

     The egg was slowly changing from white to a rich brown. The white slowly receded away and the brown became darker and richer and covered the whole egg. Even more exciting, a little spot of white appeared on each pole of the egg. Little tendrils of white reappeared, grew out from the spots, and spread and curled over the egg, until it looked almost just like the cookies they’d been decorating. Then, the egg began to shake. It shook and shook and small cracks began appearing. Then a nose stuck out of a hole, then the whole egg cracked in half, and a new little dragon was on the kitchen counter. He looked like a living gingerbread cookie! Accordingly, he was promptly named “Gingerbread” and was soon filled in on where he was, who everyone was, and he was given a cookie and eventually went outside to see the snow and join in the snowball fights.