***
"Are you ready?" A broad grin crosses my face. I can practically feel my own eyes sparkling with excitement and anticipation.
Olaf nods eagerly, staring up at me in awe. It reminds me vaguely of when children in Wandering Oaken's Trading Post looked up at me in my box on the top shelf, begging their parents to buy me because I was beautiful or because Elsa was their favorite character. And only if they knew what I was capable of!
Flipping the switch on the side of my waist, I hummed a few chords of "Let it Go" and my hands started to glow a bright shade of blue. I formed a snowball in my hands, letting it grow and take shape, then tossing it with great force in the air. It exploded onto the ceiling in the Room She Lived In, then became a fireworks of slowly falling snowflakes.
Somewhere else in the room, I heard a somewhat girly scream. I laughed when I saw Loki running into the area Olaf and I were in, (hiding behind one side of the bed) assuming that girly scream was from him.
"What's going on? Why is it-" Loki began, a panicked look on his face, before seeing Olaf's and my guilty faces. "Oh. It's you guys. Elsa, you didn't happen to... you know." Loki pointed to the ceiling. Snowflakes fell on his dark black hair, a pretty contrast before they melted.
"Um, yeah. Sorry about that. I got bored and Olaf wanted to see what I could do."
"Okay, just make sure you take that away before She gets home."
"Right," I said. "So what are you doing here?"
"Despite the fact that I was trying to find out why it was snowing in the house, I was looking for Napoleon and Magneto."
"They're downstairs, aren't they?" I asked, the last of the snow floating to the ground.
"I didn't see them down there." Loki replied.
"Huh?" I asked, eyes widening. Something bad could have happened to them. "Where are they, then?" I turned off my switch nervously. Wouldn't want to stress-freeze anything.
"I don't know, that's why I came over here."
"Okay. We can help you find them, right, Olaf?"
The snowman nodded, happy to help.
We carefully stepped out of the room (just to make sure that all the humans were completely gone) and into the hallway. I immediately noticed that Benny wasn't guarding the tree.
"Huh, that's odd," I commented. "Benny is usually here."
Unfortunately, Benny had said before that none of the other ornaments on the tree were alive, so they couldn't tell us where he had gone. Maybe he was with Napoleon and Magneto, wherever they were. Loki stopped at the tree and started giving out orders.
"Let's split up," he decided. Which wasn't a bad idea. The upstairs hallway was very long, especially for a doll. "I'll go left. Elsa, you go right. Olaf, you better stay with Elsa. She could get lost... or worse, distracted."
"Hey!" I said in an offended tone, but I knew it was the truth.
"Okay, team, split up."
"Team?" Olaf asked.
"Yeah, we're a team."
"Huh." the snowman looked confused and kind of... smug, actually. I guess he thought that Loki was a little ashamed to be around us. Maybe he had been at first, but definitely not anymore.
We went our separate ways. Olaf and I found ourselves in some sort of white room with a curtain and a mirror, and some thing that looked like a faucet with a bowl under it. There was also a small stained-glass window that I
fell in love with immediately. It reminded me of my movie.
"Hello!" I called, entering the room. It was the smallest place in the house that I had visited so far, but the ceiling was ginormous.
"Hello!" Olaf yelled along with me. "Benny! Napoleon! Magneto!"
No reply.
"Hey, maybe we're in one of these drawers!" Olaf ran over to a white cabinet and opened one of the drawers. Millions of hair accessories and a brush, but no dolls. There was another drawer higher than that one that Olaf had opened, and because we were curious, Olaf let me stand on his head to open the drawer in look inside. More hair things, another hairbrush, and also a toothbrush and toothpaste. Human things.
"They're not in here." I said.
"Aw..." Olaf whined, lowering me to the ground. "Will we ever find them?"
"We only just started looking," I said. "Besides, Loki still has the other half of the upstairs area to check. Maybe he already found them over there."
"Good idea. Let's go ask him."
"No, Olaf, wait-"
But he started running off towards the big closed door at the end of the hall. I followed after him quickly and found that the door hadn't really been closed. It was cracked open by a little, a hole just wide enough for Loki to fit through. Olaf pushed open the door and ran inside.
The place looked to be some sort of library, with shelves lining the walls and hundreds of books in each shelf. I had never been in a real library before (She had a bookcase in her room, but that was different) but I knew that I immediately loved them. There was also a large bed and multiple dressers, but no dolls lived on these ones. That's when I heard voices talking, and they weren't coming from Olaf.
Hiding in plain sight in front of a bookshelf (the giant bed had been blocking my view) was Napoleon and Benny, both looking very serious and seemingly in the middle of an important conversation. I heard strange whispers of "when Christmas is over" and "the attic." Whatever that meant. Loki stood among them, and Magneto was standing on one of the bookshelves, trying to make himself taller than everyone else.
"Hi, guys!" I cried, waving a hand. Everyone's heads turned towards Olaf and I. "What's up?"
"What's up?" Magneto asked. I guess that wasn't a very queenly thing to say, but I was just trying to act casual.
"Whatcha doing?" I asked, approaching Benny and Napoleon. Sir Benedict Edgar Norbert Newton Yankovitch and Napoleon were brothers as I had learned some time ago. The two of them, as Napoleon had said when I first met him, usually didn't get along. Benny was the guard of the Christmas tree out in the hallway and took is job very seriously. The only thing Napoleon took seriously was American history.
The nutcracker brothers looked at a loss for words but then Napoleon quickly piped up and said, "We were just looking around for some good books to read!"
I wasn't buying that, but I knew I had to play along. Clearly there was something going on that they did not want me to know about. Yet.
"Books, huh?" I asked. "What kind of books?"
"History." said Napoleon at the same time Benny said "Politics."
"Uh oh," I said. "Contrasting alibis?"
"No, no, my dear Elsa," said Napoleon quickly. I never noticed that he said my name differently. It sounded like he pronounced the 'a' too strongly. Like 'El-sA.' "We are simply looking for different titles."
"Oh. Well, while we're all here, can you help us find books about Christmas?" Olaf asked.
"Here's one," said Magneto almost immediately. He pushed a book down from the shelf and it landed on the floor with a boom. Loki picked it up and read the title out loud.
"How to Get Through the Worst Time of Your Life." he read.
I shot Magneto the stink eye. "Okay, so I know you don't like Christmas and all, but really, do you have to dampen our spirits just because you have a different opinion?"
Magneto shrugged. "It's what I do."
"This is about going through a mid-life-crisis." said Loki, turning the book over to the back cover.
"Um, what's that?" Olaf wanted to know.
"Human things," said Benny, waving it away.
"When you get to the middle of your life, say, your forties or fifties, thereabouts, you start to have hormonal sparks in your brain, similar to when humans go through their teen years." Napoleon explained. The nutcracker was basically an encyclopedia. But I thought he just mainly focused on learning about history and past events.
"What are hormones?"
"Nothing you need to worry about, Olaf." I said quickly.
"Okay. So... Christmas books. Where are they?" he asked.
"I already gave you one. I suggest you take its advice." Magneto said from his shelf.
I gave him another dirty look. Napoleon and Benny decided to leave and let us search for books about Christmas. They probably wanted to discuss things in a more private space anyway. Loki and Magneto stayed, (although I kind of wish Magneto had left) saying they were going to help Olaf and I find books.
The shelves were huge, and even though Magneto and Loki were small and fast enough to climb up to the top shelf, it would take hours for dolls like us with no experience in a library to find anything useful. After a while, Loki noticed that the books were categorized in some ways. The first bookcase, second shelf from the bottom, was about electricity. The third bookcase, fourth shelf, was about music. The second bookcase, first shelf, was about home management and repair. Mostly boring things dolls don't need to know about.
We were about to give up with Magneto actually decided to give us a useful tip. "I find something you might want." he called out from the topmost shelf.
"Are you being serious?" Loki asked.
"This time I am," Magneto replied. "Find a whole series of these things titled 'cookbooks.' I don't know what they are, but there's one up here that says something about Christmas. I can't read much else."
"Great! Send it down!" I said, cheerful that Magneto was actually trying to help us accomplish something for once.
He pushed the book off the shelf with greater force than before, sending it tumbling down and almost falling on top of Olaf. Loki read to cover just to make sure, and indeed, the book was titled The Christmas Cookbook.
"I don't know what cookbooks are for," Olaf said, turning each page slowly. "I can't read anything, either, but these pictures look like food to me." he pointed to a photo of a plate with a delicious-looking slice of chocolate cake on it.
"Looks good," Loki said. "We'll take it."
"Take it? After that, what will you do with it? Isn't that stealing from the humans?" Magneto asked with a smirk. He was leaning against another book. That one looked interesting, too. The I Heart Chocolate Cookbook.
"We're not stealing something when it comes from our own home," Loki explained. "Besides, we'll return them when we're done looking for them. Or at least you will."
Magneto grimaced. "Why me? I want no part in this!"
"You're the only one skilled enough to climb up to the top shelf."
I hid a smile. Loki was straight-up lying to Magneto to get him to do our dirty work. Loki definitely had the right skills to get up there, probably in less time than Magneto. But he didn't need to know that.
"What on Earth are you looking for, anyways?"
"The meaning of Christmas." said Olaf.
Magneto groaned and started to push more books off the shelf. "Here, take these ones, too. You're going to need them for what you're looking for."
"Thanks, Magneto!" I said happily, and with a short wave, we turned our backs and walked our of the library room and into the hallway. Since I was the largest and therefore probably the strongest, I carried the books. We saw Benny standing guard at the tree again, a bitter look on his wooden face. I wonder what he had been talking about with Napoleon.
"Hi, Benny!" Olaf said cheerily. "We're going to look through a few cookbooks if you want to join us."
Benny raised a painted eyebrow. "You do understand what cookbooks are for, yes?"
"Um, no. Not really," Olaf replied. "But we hope to find what the meaning of Christmas is after reading it!"
Benny gave a short chuckle. "Cookbooks are what humans use as directions for how to make food."
"Oh." the three of us said. I guess it made sense, but we weren't really expecting that.
"Well, I guess we could always make the food. If we do, the meaning of Christmas might be found in what we make." said Olaf.
"Do whatever you want," said Benny. "Be my guest. But I suggest that you do not make a mess in the kitchen. I am not sure when the humans will be home."
"For another hour or two, at least." I added.
"Whatever you decide will be fine with me. I'm not going to get involved anyway."
"Are you sure? We could always use the kitchen help!" I said aloud, but then added, "Because we have no idea what we're doing." under my breath.
"No, I'll be fine up here, don't you worry about me, miss."
"Um, okay. Well, we promise to bring some of whatever we make up here to share." I called after him, thinking of Dorothy and Bell and Napoleon. Maybe Benny and Magneto would even like some food.
"That is very kind of you." said Benny with a polite nod of his head.
And with that, we went downstairs to the kitchen.
None of us had never been in the kitchen before. We didn't even realize the house had a kitchen. Of course it had to if humans lived in it. But the only thing we knew about a kitchen is that it was a room where food was made. I guess that's all we really did need to know.
She's kitchen had an island in it, (I think that's what they're called, but it seems like a strange name to me) and that's where we decided to make camp. There was a stool in one corner, so I pulled that over to the island so we could climb up onto it and lay down our cookbooks. Finally, I was able to read the titles. I had seen The Christmas Cookbook and The I Heart Chocolate Cookbook before, but as it turns out, Magneto had pushed two more off the shelf. Recipes From Around the World and Traditional Holiday Recipes.
"Now, which one should we look at first?" I asked, laying each cookbook out on the island, and the opening the book to the first page. Not all the interesting, since the first page of each of the cookbooks was either crediting the authors or how to use each cooking utensil.
"What are these?" Olaf asked, pointing at the different pictures of forks and whisks and spatulas.
"Instructions for how to use each item," said Loki, gazing upon the page with interest. "We should probably look at these first."
"Why can't we just improvise?" I groaned.
"Because if we improvise, then we make mistakes."
"Making mistakes is how you learn. " I argued and began flipping through the first book, the chocolate one. All the pictures made my mouth water, if that was even possible.
"Why can't we make everything?" Olaf begged. I seemed that entire vocabulary consisted of questions.
"We should start somewhere simple. This is our first time attempting to cook anything." said Loki.
"I wonder..." I mumbled, ignoring his comment. I picked up Recipes From Around the World and turned to the table of contents. "Aha!"
"What is it?" Like I said, Olaf only knew how to talk by asking questions.
"There is a Norwegian section in this cookbook. See, Olaf? Norsk." my accent was a little rusty. It sounded like I was trying to speak through my nose.
Loki rubbed his neck. "Ha, I should have known what that meant. 'Norway.' I have roots there."
"You do?" I never knew this about him.
"Yeah. At least in my movies I do."
"Maybe we could start a Norway club!" cried Olaf. "Just the three of us in a Norway club!"
"Yeah, maybe. But for now, let's focus on making something delicious. Benny and the others are counting on us to bring them something," I began. "But maybe we could make something Norwegian."
"As long as it smells good." said Olaf.
"Ooh! How about Christmas cabbage?" I asked, skimming through the cookbook. "It is Christmas, after all."
"Um, no." said Loki and Olaf at the same time. I had to agree. Cabbage doesn't smell all that good.
I turned the page, my eyes skimming a dish that looked like a plate of tortilla shells.
"We could always make Lefse," I suggested. "I think that smells good."
"I'm sorry, what? Lefse?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It's a traditional Norwegian snack made with potatoes and heavy cream," I explained. "I think I smelled some outside Wandering Oaken's during a Frozen festival."
"Do you actually think we have time to make these things?"
"How about... pannekaken?" I suggested, ignoring him again.
"What?" Loki asked.
"Norwegian pancakes. Quite good. I think."
"How about... something normal?"
"Yeah, okay." I had to agree. I might have been able to pronounce the Norwegian words, but to make them with something different entirely.
"Why don't we just try something simple?" I heard Olaf ask. I suddenly realized that Olaf wasn't beside me playing in the flour. Loki and I turned toward the direction of his voice and found Olaf holding up a tiny glass jar of strawberry jam. Perfect.
"Wow, thanks, Olaf! Where did you find that?"
"Over here by the breadbox. Sorry, I got kind of bored when you started reading."
"That's okay. We can make something from that. Here, toss it over." I said.
"No wait-" Loki began before Olaf spun around and launched it across the kitchen. I knew immediately that once he had thrown it, it had fallen short. The jar kind of went in slow motion. On instinct, I flipped on my switch and then sent a bolt of ice flying toward the jar, hoping that I could catch it before it shattered onto the floor. But my ice had also failed to catch the jar, and before I knew what was happening, Loki made a running jump off the counter and dove towards the jar, catching it in his arms and then ending up sprawled out on the white tiled floor of the kitchen with the unharmed jam jar lying on top of him.
"Nice catch," I commented, staring down at him. "You okay?"
"Let's not... do that... again." Loki gasped from having the wind knocked out of him.
"Sorry about that," Olaf said in solemn apology. "Here, I'll pull you up." He jumped off the counter. (Because why not?) and ran over to Loki, but by the time he had made it to Loki, he had already picked himself up and was only breathing audibly by a little. They both climbed back up the stool and then back onto the island where I was.
"So now we have something to make." I decided.
"But we just have jam," Olaf pointed out. "And four cookbooks which don't have any recipes with jam in them."
"No, there is a few, see? And in the Norwegian section, too. Everything works out perfectly!" I pointed to a section in the book. There were four recipes with jam, one of them being a cute little plate of Norwegian butter cookies. I knew I had found the recipe we were making.
"Wait, before we do anything involving potential messes, let me go get something really quick."
"Wha-what?" Olaf looked puzzled as Loki straight-up jumped off the counter painlessly and hitting the ground, then running off into the house somewhere. Loki disappeared from sight once he turned the corner, and Olaf leaned in towards me and started talking out of the side of his mouth. "He's cah-razy!"
"Ha, very clever, Olaf," I said with a grin. "But I wonder what he is doing,.." my voice trailed off, and sooner than later, Loki returned with a ball of old red cloth in his hands.
"Here, put these on." He ordered, draping himself with a strip of the fabric like a poncho.
"Um, why?" said Olaf.
"So we don't get any stains from the food on ourselves. She will certainly notice if we do."
"Ah, so you're a clean freak, then, huh?" I asked, tying the cloth around my waist, the most likely place for me to get ingredients on my dress.
"He has a good point," said Olaf, wearing his cloth as a scarf. "Even if he is crazy." Loki shot him a weird look.
(We did look pretty fabulous)
Olaf and Loki agreed that we should make the butter cookies and spread the jam over them (butter and jam, a great combination of smells) so we started to gather the ingredients for our cookies. Olaf was in charge of getting the flour and salt, and Loki got the butter and sugar, and I was in charge of the vanilla.
"Um, Elsa," Olaf grunted, dragging the heavy bucket-sized container of flour onto the island. "Just a quick question. Do we even know how to make Norwegian butter cookies? Do we even know how to bake them?"
I bit my lip. How do we cook these? I suppose we could just have them raw, since we weren't actually eating them, but warm cookies smell so much better than cold ones.
"Maybe if we just make really tiny cookies, we can put them in the microwave and bake them that way." I just hoped that what I was telling Olaf was true.
"Good idea. But what's microwave?"
"That thing over there," I pointed to a shiny black box hanging up by the cabinets. "I saw She put a mug of plain water in there once, and it came it steaming."
Olaf's eyes widened in amazement as he turned towards the microwave. "It provides... heat?"
"Yes, Olaf."
"Oh, I've always loved the idea of summer, and sun, and all things hot!"
Wow. The second reference to Frozen in the last two minutes.
"Really?" Loki asked.
"I'm guessing you don't have much experience with heat." I finished with a smile, even if Loki didn't get the joke.
"Well, I used to be afraid of it, you know that one time when we thought there was a fire in the house. But I was only afraid of the fire, not the heat. Fire is scary because you can't control it. Well, unless it's in a fireplace, of course."
"Oh," I said. "So you're not afraid of heat?"
Loki coughed in a rather unusual way, and I realized that we was trying to cover up the word, "melt." Olaf still didn't know he was a toy, and even though he couldn't melt because he wasn't made of real snow, we didn't be the ones to ruin his dreams.
"Well, uh, okay then," I said, trying to change the conversation. "Let's make our cookies, and then we can bake them in the microwave."
"Great! I'll test it out!" said Olaf, and before Loki or I could stop him, he did a running jump from the island to the counter and opened the microwave door, then jumped inside.
"Ummmm..." what exactly does one say to that?
"So this is heat. I love it!" Olaf cried, jumping around in the microwave. It was a strange sight.
"Um, you do realize that the microwave isn't exactly on?" Loki said, looking somewhat amused.
So Olaf was in a microwave now, and we had no idea when the humans would be coming home. It was take charge time. "Alright, you can do whatever, but I'm going to start making these cookies." I said in my best serious leader voice. But the recipe only has a few ingredients. Maybe we should collect a bit more."
My eyes wandered around the kitchen before finally settling on the spice cabinet. That one looked interesting enough. "Maybe to start we should throw in some honey." I said, running across the island and making a jump that impressed even myself to the counter, where the spice cabinet was. I knew it was the spice cabinet because we had spent nearly ten minutes looking for it when trying to find sugar, when finally coming to the conclusion that sugar is in fact not a spice.
"Why?" Loki asked, clearly displeased that we were straying from the plan.
"Because I feel like these cookies require honey."
"Okay, whatever."
"And maybe some cinnamon."
"Elsa..." Loki said in a warning tone.
I stood on my tip-toes and reached for the cinnamon. Forcing open the lid, an immediate burst of scent overpowered me. "Ugh," I coughed, then put the cinnamon back on the shelf. "Way too strong, never mind. Instead, we can put some chocolate drizzle on top."
"Fine then!"
Wow. Loki actually raised his voice for the first time in forever. (haha, third reference) Olaf and I were so shocked by this that we actually stopped moving for a second.
"Or not. I mean, it doesn't have to have chocolate on top."
"No, chocolate's fine," Loki ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry about that. Just got a little stressed."
"No, no, you're right. Olaf's in the microwave and I'm looking for things we don't need. Thanks for shaking some sense into us."
"Yeah, you're welcome, I guess," Loki said quietly. "But hey, you can get something for me. This recipe says to top each cookie with some powdered sugar. Do you know where that is?"
"Um, yeah, I think so." I said, but I was unsure of where to look at all.
"Oh, I do!" It was Olaf. He pushed open the door to the microwave and made another running jump to the island where the rest of us were.
"Wow, you're good at long jumps, Olaf." I commented.
He waved it away. "It's easy. And so is finding sprinkles. It's down here in the cupboard where we found the flour. I saw it earlier." The snowman jumped down from the island and onto the ground, where he opened the cupboard, then not even a second later, held up something that looked to be two saltshakers full of tiny colored beads. Red and green for Christmas colors. But these weren't beads, they were sugar sprinkles.
I liked them immediately, imagining how pretty they would look on top of our cookies once they were done. Who could ever be mad at tiny dots of colored sugar?
"Good work, Olaf. Here, let me help you," he handed me the powdered sugar container and then I pulled him onto the island.
"Alright, now that we've got everything, let's get down the business."
(Okay, so maybe didn't look so fabulous in his oversized red poncho)
"To defeat the Huns!" Olaf and I both chanted, then fell backwards in laughter. Loki just stood there, looking confused. I guess Marvel was still kind of new to the Disney family, but Frozen had only been around for a little while, too, and yet we knew what Mulan was.
But we did end up getting down to business. The recipe we chose fortunately did not require eggs, so that meant less work. First, we found a tiny bowl and a baby spoon in which to combine our ingredients. We let Olaf stir, and Loki read the steps out loud (I wonder where he learned to read so well) and I measured out the ingredients and added them to the mix. First, we had to cream together the butter adding the sugar in slowly. Then the vanilla extract went in, then the flour and a pinch of table salt.
Once all the ingredients were mixed we were pretty proud of ourselves. Three dolls in the kitchen actually cooking some real food. Definitely an accomplishment of some sort. But then another problem reared it's ugly head.
"Wrap cookie dough in plastic wrap..." Loki read from the cookbook.
"Got it!" Olaf said, jumping back to the floor and opening up a bottom drawer, then pulling a clear plastic sheet from a box that laid inside.
"Once the dough is completely wrapped, set in a bowl and cover it with a lid. Then place inside refrigerator and freeze for thirty minutes. Since we're cutting our recipe in half, fifteen minutes should be fine."
"Ummm," said Olaf. "Re-frid-ger-a-tor? Is that like a microwave?"
"No, it's that thing over there," I said, pointing to the corner of the kitchen with the large stainless steel fridge. "But I don't think we have fifteen minutes to just wait around for the dough to get cold."
"Good point," said Loki. He looked thoughtful, but then he turned around ans grinned at me. "Elsa," he said slyly. "Remember how I saw snowflakes were falling from the ceiling earlier?"
"Yeah- oohhh!" I grinned back, nodding. Of course! I had almost forgotten my powers. Strange thing to forget, I know. You think that having the ability to create ice and snow out of nowhere would be a difficult thing to forget. I flicked on my switch while Olaf and Loki wrapped the ball of cookie dough in the plastic wrap and stored it in a plastic container. Once the lid was on, Loki gave me a nod. I felt the air grow cold around me, then I concentrated it to the container. A perfect ball of ice formed in my hands, and then, whoosh! The container was covered in a thick layer of ice all around.
"There, that should do it." I said proudly, then turned off my switch to prevent from any accidents.
"Woah..." said Olaf, marveling at my work. "How do you do it?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. How are you able to jump so far? And how is Loki able to read so well?"
"Well..." Loki began, but he was interrupted by Olaf.
"Yeah, but that's different. We learned how to jump and how to read. But you have a gift."
I blushed. "Um, thanks."
"The ice should help speed up the cooling process. In the meantime, we can work on getting this mess cleaned up." said Loki.
I looked down and suddenly realized that there was another task at hand. The island was a mess. A big one. Grains of salt crunched under our feet, and butter left oily stains on the bowl and spoon we used. Flour was spread all over the place. In fact, it looked like Olaf had tried to make a snow angel in one of the piles.
"Um, yeah, we should get to that." I said after a minute or so of silence.
"I'll work on washing the dishes." said Loki.
"But why? That's probably the biggest job." said Olaf.
"Because you and Elsa... well, you can't get water on you. She'll notice. But I'll be fine."
"Okay..." I said, feeling kind of bad. "Olaf, can you get some paper towels? We'll need to get this flour and salt off the island."
Loki worked with the dishes in the sink while I cleaned up the island and Olaf was in charge of getting more paper towels and throwing the dirty ones away. Once we were finished, the island looked as good as it had been before. And we were just in time, because the dough was cool enough for me to thaw the ice on the container. It was easy, really. Unlike Elsa in the movie, I can reverse things pretty well. Loki found us a small cookie sheet and we each rolled out balls from the dough and flattened them onto the plate. We wanted to make them big, but not human-sized, and not too small so that we had too many. Just enough for the three of us and six to share. Once we had used up all the dough, Olaf used his long-distance jumping skills to take the cookie sheet over to the microwave and push the button for number one. We weren't really sure how long the cookies would take to bake. The regular cookie recipe calls for an oven, but then again, the regular cookie recipe was not making doll-sized cookies.
One minute was almost enough. Olaf pulled the cookie tray out of the microwave and they were warm to the touch, but soft on the inside, and nobody likes a raw cookie, even if you don't intend to eat it. Another twenty seconds cooked them all the way through. The entire room smelled heavenly. I decided that our little baking test went quite well, even if there were a few obstacles. It was actually just as perfect as I imagined it would be.
"And now," I said, "For the fun part!"
We used the sprinkles that Olaf had found along with some confectioner's sugar to put on the top of our cookies. And of course, the jam. Can't forget the jam. They actually looked very pretty! Of course, it's not the sight, but the smell.
(At the bottom of this blog post I have included a recipe for the cookies we made if you want to try them out yourself)
After the cookies were ready, we realized that the only thing left to do was share them with our friends upstairs.
"Where to first?" Loki asked. Ha! Like I had a plan. Well, I guess I was carrying the plate of cookies.
"Um, let's try to find Benny first. I think he needs some cheering up."
Olaf nodded. "Yeah. I think Benny and Napoleon were talking about something serious earlier."
"Good idea. If I remember correctly, they went down the hallway somewhere." said Loki.
It didn't take us long to find them. They were the only other talking dolls in the house besides Bell and Dorothy, and they usually spent their time up in a tree or on a shelf. They were in the room that none of the humans ever used, the one they called The Guest Room, which was of course for guests. We heard their voices outside the hallway, but they seemed less serious than before. Also Magneto was in there, because he was talking with them. Well, I guess he deserved a cookie, too.
"Hey, guys," I said quietly as we stepped into the doorway, with me holding the plate of cookies behind my back. It had to be a surprise. My voice was just loud enough so they could hear me (the three of them turned around to see who it was) but not so much that they thought I was being rude. "Is this a bad time?" I asked.
"Because we made you something!" Olaf finished.
"Ah, you did? Very well. We should like to see." said Napoleon. So I guess it wasn't a bad time to butt in.
"Um... care to explain your attire?" Benny asked. Magneto, who was sitting up on the windowsill of The Guest Room, laughed so hard he actually fell down.
I shot Loki and look that said, "Maybe we should have taken off our aprons before coming in to say hi." He only shrugged. Loki didn't care.
"Well, um, we were in the kitchen," I explained, then pulled the plate out slowly from behind my back. "Making these."
All three of our friends' eyes went wide.
"What are they, exactly?" Benny asked. He grabbed a confectioner's sugar covered one off the plate and examined him closely. I don't know why, but I suddenly thought that he should be wearing a monocle.
"Cookies," Olaf explained. "Butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, and salt."
"And what did you put on them?" Napoleon asked, taking one and handing it up to Magneto, who looked at in a completely puzzled way, turning it in his hands this way and that.
"Well, we put on lots of things. The white ones have confectioner's sugar, and the colored ones have red and green sugar sprinkles for Christmas colors. The last ones have jam on them. Olaf found a little jar of strawberry preserves downstairs."
"Go ahead, try them." said Loki.
"Are they poisonous?" Magneto asked with a scowl.
"Why would we try to poison you?"
"Oh, quit with the trust issues, comrade," said Napoleon, smelling his cookie. "They have quite a lovely scent."
Benny nodded in agreement. He looked happier already.
Once Magneto overcame his fear of the poisoned cookie, he was surprisingly pleased at how good it smelled. Dorothy and Bell even came up the stairs for a visit, probably hearing the enormous amount of chatter that was going on. We gave them a cookie each, and they both agreed that it was one of the best things they had ever smelled. Dorothy even put one in her basket for Toto to snack on later if he wanted, but Bell passed because the pinecones in the downstairs Christmas tree smelled like cinnamon. I explained to her that we were actually about to put cinnamon on our cookies, and Bell laughed as she flew away and told us that the cookies we made were already perfect. Each comment made the smile on my face bigger and bigger.
Soon it was time for the three of us to go back to the Room She Lived In. We waved our goodbyes to Benny, Napoleon, and Magneto, who were settling themselves back into place. Napoleon by the fireplace, Benny under the upstairs Christmas tree, and Magneto returning to his ceramic town in the best mood I had seen the old grump in since, well, never.
"Thank you, friends," said Benny, who was the last one we had to say goodbye to. "You really did but a lot of effort into what you did today, and I think everyone here was very thankful for that."
"It was really Elsa's idea," said Loki. "We were trying to find the meaning of Christmas, and she suggested that we make something from a Christmas cookbook."
"More of this 'meaning of Christmas' stuff, huh?" Benny asked, scratching his chin. "Well, I think my opinion has changed from before. Christmas is about effort."
"Effort?" Olaf asked, as if effort was the last possible thing Christmas could be about.
"Of course. Christmas is all about effort. Going out to by someone a present, that takes effort. Decorating the house, and the yard, or a Christmas tree. That takes effort, too. Giving with your heart to people in need, that takes more effort than anything is reaching out a helping hand. And that's what you all did today. You put in a little bit of your own time and effort to make your friends happy, which is what I think we needed the most today."
"You are very welcome," I replied, beaming. "Oh, and before we go, we want you to have the last cookie." I took the last one of our plate and gave it out to Benny.
Benny took our present and we bade him good-bye, hiding the plate, now full of crumbs, and climbing up onto the dresser. We'd all had an exhausting day, and I think I was ready for some quiet time with just me and She's computer, writing down all that had happened. I guess that's what I'm doing now, but I have to say;
I liked this message the best of all. Benny was right. Christmas is about effort. The effort She took into finding and decorating a little Christmas tree for us. The effort the humans put in to take care each-other. The effort Olaf, Loki and I took to brighten up our friends' days. The effort it takes to make each Christmas, whether good or bad.
Effort may have been the real meaning of Christmas, but we couldn't give up yet, not even if we had found it all along, because I didn't call it Elsa's 12 Days of Christmas for nothing. I had to write six more posts whether I liked it or not. But that's putting effort into something, isn't it?
The humans came home a few minutes later. Turns out dolls are very good at timing when their humans are going to be home. I heard them rustling around downstairs, out for more Christmas shopping because a set of lights they had used last year had refused to work and the closest place to go and buy Christmas lights was an hour away. Bad for them, I guess, but good for us!
"Mm, something smells good in here," I heard one human say from downstairs. "Like cookies. Must be that new air freshener I put in yesterday."
Olaf and I shared a secret giggle. Even Loki looked content that everything had worked out for the better. The only trace we left was the smell of cookies in the air. If only they knew!
"Right," I said. "So what are you doing here?"
"Despite the fact that I was trying to find out why it was snowing in the house, I was looking for Napoleon and Magneto."
"They're downstairs, aren't they?" I asked, the last of the snow floating to the ground.
"I didn't see them down there." Loki replied.
"Huh?" I asked, eyes widening. Something bad could have happened to them. "Where are they, then?" I turned off my switch nervously. Wouldn't want to stress-freeze anything.
"I don't know, that's why I came over here."
"Okay. We can help you find them, right, Olaf?"
The snowman nodded, happy to help.
(Olaf lost his hat sometime during the last blog post, which is why he isn't wearing it anymore)
"Since you already checked downstairs, we should probably start with the upstairs area." I suggested. The only places we had ever explored together as a team was the hallway with Benny's Christmas tree and the Room She Lived In, and I couldn't wait to see what the other part of the house held. New places were exciting!We carefully stepped out of the room (just to make sure that all the humans were completely gone) and into the hallway. I immediately noticed that Benny wasn't guarding the tree.
"Huh, that's odd," I commented. "Benny is usually here."
Unfortunately, Benny had said before that none of the other ornaments on the tree were alive, so they couldn't tell us where he had gone. Maybe he was with Napoleon and Magneto, wherever they were. Loki stopped at the tree and started giving out orders.
"Let's split up," he decided. Which wasn't a bad idea. The upstairs hallway was very long, especially for a doll. "I'll go left. Elsa, you go right. Olaf, you better stay with Elsa. She could get lost... or worse, distracted."
"Hey!" I said in an offended tone, but I knew it was the truth.
"Okay, team, split up."
"Team?" Olaf asked.
"Yeah, we're a team."
"Huh." the snowman looked confused and kind of... smug, actually. I guess he thought that Loki was a little ashamed to be around us. Maybe he had been at first, but definitely not anymore.
We went our separate ways. Olaf and I found ourselves in some sort of white room with a curtain and a mirror, and some thing that looked like a faucet with a bowl under it. There was also a small stained-glass window that I
fell in love with immediately. It reminded me of my movie.
"Hello!" I called, entering the room. It was the smallest place in the house that I had visited so far, but the ceiling was ginormous.
"Hello!" Olaf yelled along with me. "Benny! Napoleon! Magneto!"
No reply.
"Hey, maybe we're in one of these drawers!" Olaf ran over to a white cabinet and opened one of the drawers. Millions of hair accessories and a brush, but no dolls. There was another drawer higher than that one that Olaf had opened, and because we were curious, Olaf let me stand on his head to open the drawer in look inside. More hair things, another hairbrush, and also a toothbrush and toothpaste. Human things.
"They're not in here." I said.
"Aw..." Olaf whined, lowering me to the ground. "Will we ever find them?"
"We only just started looking," I said. "Besides, Loki still has the other half of the upstairs area to check. Maybe he already found them over there."
"Good idea. Let's go ask him."
"No, Olaf, wait-"
But he started running off towards the big closed door at the end of the hall. I followed after him quickly and found that the door hadn't really been closed. It was cracked open by a little, a hole just wide enough for Loki to fit through. Olaf pushed open the door and ran inside.
The place looked to be some sort of library, with shelves lining the walls and hundreds of books in each shelf. I had never been in a real library before (She had a bookcase in her room, but that was different) but I knew that I immediately loved them. There was also a large bed and multiple dressers, but no dolls lived on these ones. That's when I heard voices talking, and they weren't coming from Olaf.
Hiding in plain sight in front of a bookshelf (the giant bed had been blocking my view) was Napoleon and Benny, both looking very serious and seemingly in the middle of an important conversation. I heard strange whispers of "when Christmas is over" and "the attic." Whatever that meant. Loki stood among them, and Magneto was standing on one of the bookshelves, trying to make himself taller than everyone else.
"Hi, guys!" I cried, waving a hand. Everyone's heads turned towards Olaf and I. "What's up?"
"What's up?" Magneto asked. I guess that wasn't a very queenly thing to say, but I was just trying to act casual.
"Whatcha doing?" I asked, approaching Benny and Napoleon. Sir Benedict Edgar Norbert Newton Yankovitch and Napoleon were brothers as I had learned some time ago. The two of them, as Napoleon had said when I first met him, usually didn't get along. Benny was the guard of the Christmas tree out in the hallway and took is job very seriously. The only thing Napoleon took seriously was American history.
The nutcracker brothers looked at a loss for words but then Napoleon quickly piped up and said, "We were just looking around for some good books to read!"
I wasn't buying that, but I knew I had to play along. Clearly there was something going on that they did not want me to know about. Yet.
"Books, huh?" I asked. "What kind of books?"
"History." said Napoleon at the same time Benny said "Politics."
"Uh oh," I said. "Contrasting alibis?"
"No, no, my dear Elsa," said Napoleon quickly. I never noticed that he said my name differently. It sounded like he pronounced the 'a' too strongly. Like 'El-sA.' "We are simply looking for different titles."
"Oh. Well, while we're all here, can you help us find books about Christmas?" Olaf asked.
"Here's one," said Magneto almost immediately. He pushed a book down from the shelf and it landed on the floor with a boom. Loki picked it up and read the title out loud.
"How to Get Through the Worst Time of Your Life." he read.
I shot Magneto the stink eye. "Okay, so I know you don't like Christmas and all, but really, do you have to dampen our spirits just because you have a different opinion?"
Magneto shrugged. "It's what I do."
"This is about going through a mid-life-crisis." said Loki, turning the book over to the back cover.
"Um, what's that?" Olaf wanted to know.
"Human things," said Benny, waving it away.
"When you get to the middle of your life, say, your forties or fifties, thereabouts, you start to have hormonal sparks in your brain, similar to when humans go through their teen years." Napoleon explained. The nutcracker was basically an encyclopedia. But I thought he just mainly focused on learning about history and past events.
"What are hormones?"
"Nothing you need to worry about, Olaf." I said quickly.
"Okay. So... Christmas books. Where are they?" he asked.
"I already gave you one. I suggest you take its advice." Magneto said from his shelf.
I gave him another dirty look. Napoleon and Benny decided to leave and let us search for books about Christmas. They probably wanted to discuss things in a more private space anyway. Loki and Magneto stayed, (although I kind of wish Magneto had left) saying they were going to help Olaf and I find books.
The shelves were huge, and even though Magneto and Loki were small and fast enough to climb up to the top shelf, it would take hours for dolls like us with no experience in a library to find anything useful. After a while, Loki noticed that the books were categorized in some ways. The first bookcase, second shelf from the bottom, was about electricity. The third bookcase, fourth shelf, was about music. The second bookcase, first shelf, was about home management and repair. Mostly boring things dolls don't need to know about.
We were about to give up with Magneto actually decided to give us a useful tip. "I find something you might want." he called out from the topmost shelf.
"Are you being serious?" Loki asked.
"This time I am," Magneto replied. "Find a whole series of these things titled 'cookbooks.' I don't know what they are, but there's one up here that says something about Christmas. I can't read much else."
"Great! Send it down!" I said, cheerful that Magneto was actually trying to help us accomplish something for once.
He pushed the book off the shelf with greater force than before, sending it tumbling down and almost falling on top of Olaf. Loki read to cover just to make sure, and indeed, the book was titled The Christmas Cookbook.
"I don't know what cookbooks are for," Olaf said, turning each page slowly. "I can't read anything, either, but these pictures look like food to me." he pointed to a photo of a plate with a delicious-looking slice of chocolate cake on it.
"Looks good," Loki said. "We'll take it."
"Take it? After that, what will you do with it? Isn't that stealing from the humans?" Magneto asked with a smirk. He was leaning against another book. That one looked interesting, too. The I Heart Chocolate Cookbook.
"We're not stealing something when it comes from our own home," Loki explained. "Besides, we'll return them when we're done looking for them. Or at least you will."
Magneto grimaced. "Why me? I want no part in this!"
"You're the only one skilled enough to climb up to the top shelf."
I hid a smile. Loki was straight-up lying to Magneto to get him to do our dirty work. Loki definitely had the right skills to get up there, probably in less time than Magneto. But he didn't need to know that.
"What on Earth are you looking for, anyways?"
"The meaning of Christmas." said Olaf.
Magneto groaned and started to push more books off the shelf. "Here, take these ones, too. You're going to need them for what you're looking for."
"Thanks, Magneto!" I said happily, and with a short wave, we turned our backs and walked our of the library room and into the hallway. Since I was the largest and therefore probably the strongest, I carried the books. We saw Benny standing guard at the tree again, a bitter look on his wooden face. I wonder what he had been talking about with Napoleon.
"Hi, Benny!" Olaf said cheerily. "We're going to look through a few cookbooks if you want to join us."
Benny raised a painted eyebrow. "You do understand what cookbooks are for, yes?"
"Um, no. Not really," Olaf replied. "But we hope to find what the meaning of Christmas is after reading it!"
Benny gave a short chuckle. "Cookbooks are what humans use as directions for how to make food."
"Oh." the three of us said. I guess it made sense, but we weren't really expecting that.
"Well, I guess we could always make the food. If we do, the meaning of Christmas might be found in what we make." said Olaf.
"Do whatever you want," said Benny. "Be my guest. But I suggest that you do not make a mess in the kitchen. I am not sure when the humans will be home."
"For another hour or two, at least." I added.
"Whatever you decide will be fine with me. I'm not going to get involved anyway."
"Are you sure? We could always use the kitchen help!" I said aloud, but then added, "Because we have no idea what we're doing." under my breath.
"No, I'll be fine up here, don't you worry about me, miss."
"Um, okay. Well, we promise to bring some of whatever we make up here to share." I called after him, thinking of Dorothy and Bell and Napoleon. Maybe Benny and Magneto would even like some food.
"That is very kind of you." said Benny with a polite nod of his head.
And with that, we went downstairs to the kitchen.
None of us had never been in the kitchen before. We didn't even realize the house had a kitchen. Of course it had to if humans lived in it. But the only thing we knew about a kitchen is that it was a room where food was made. I guess that's all we really did need to know.
She's kitchen had an island in it, (I think that's what they're called, but it seems like a strange name to me) and that's where we decided to make camp. There was a stool in one corner, so I pulled that over to the island so we could climb up onto it and lay down our cookbooks. Finally, I was able to read the titles. I had seen The Christmas Cookbook and The I Heart Chocolate Cookbook before, but as it turns out, Magneto had pushed two more off the shelf. Recipes From Around the World and Traditional Holiday Recipes.
"What are these?" Olaf asked, pointing at the different pictures of forks and whisks and spatulas.
"Instructions for how to use each item," said Loki, gazing upon the page with interest. "We should probably look at these first."
"Why can't we just improvise?" I groaned.
"Because if we improvise, then we make mistakes."
"Making mistakes is how you learn. " I argued and began flipping through the first book, the chocolate one. All the pictures made my mouth water, if that was even possible.
"Why can't we make everything?" Olaf begged. I seemed that entire vocabulary consisted of questions.
"We should start somewhere simple. This is our first time attempting to cook anything." said Loki.
"I wonder..." I mumbled, ignoring his comment. I picked up Recipes From Around the World and turned to the table of contents. "Aha!"
"What is it?" Like I said, Olaf only knew how to talk by asking questions.
"There is a Norwegian section in this cookbook. See, Olaf? Norsk." my accent was a little rusty. It sounded like I was trying to speak through my nose.
Loki rubbed his neck. "Ha, I should have known what that meant. 'Norway.' I have roots there."
"You do?" I never knew this about him.
"Yeah. At least in my movies I do."
"Maybe we could start a Norway club!" cried Olaf. "Just the three of us in a Norway club!"
"Yeah, maybe. But for now, let's focus on making something delicious. Benny and the others are counting on us to bring them something," I began. "But maybe we could make something Norwegian."
"As long as it smells good." said Olaf.
"Ooh! How about Christmas cabbage?" I asked, skimming through the cookbook. "It is Christmas, after all."
"Um, no." said Loki and Olaf at the same time. I had to agree. Cabbage doesn't smell all that good.
I turned the page, my eyes skimming a dish that looked like a plate of tortilla shells.
"We could always make Lefse," I suggested. "I think that smells good."
"I'm sorry, what? Lefse?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It's a traditional Norwegian snack made with potatoes and heavy cream," I explained. "I think I smelled some outside Wandering Oaken's during a Frozen festival."
"Do you actually think we have time to make these things?"
"How about... pannekaken?" I suggested, ignoring him again.
"What?" Loki asked.
"Norwegian pancakes. Quite good. I think."
"How about... something normal?"
"Yeah, okay." I had to agree. I might have been able to pronounce the Norwegian words, but to make them with something different entirely.
"Why don't we just try something simple?" I heard Olaf ask. I suddenly realized that Olaf wasn't beside me playing in the flour. Loki and I turned toward the direction of his voice and found Olaf holding up a tiny glass jar of strawberry jam. Perfect.
"Wow, thanks, Olaf! Where did you find that?"
"Over here by the breadbox. Sorry, I got kind of bored when you started reading."
"That's okay. We can make something from that. Here, toss it over." I said.
"No wait-" Loki began before Olaf spun around and launched it across the kitchen. I knew immediately that once he had thrown it, it had fallen short. The jar kind of went in slow motion. On instinct, I flipped on my switch and then sent a bolt of ice flying toward the jar, hoping that I could catch it before it shattered onto the floor. But my ice had also failed to catch the jar, and before I knew what was happening, Loki made a running jump off the counter and dove towards the jar, catching it in his arms and then ending up sprawled out on the white tiled floor of the kitchen with the unharmed jam jar lying on top of him.
"Nice catch," I commented, staring down at him. "You okay?"
"Let's not... do that... again." Loki gasped from having the wind knocked out of him.
"Sorry about that," Olaf said in solemn apology. "Here, I'll pull you up." He jumped off the counter. (Because why not?) and ran over to Loki, but by the time he had made it to Loki, he had already picked himself up and was only breathing audibly by a little. They both climbed back up the stool and then back onto the island where I was.
"So now we have something to make." I decided.
"But we just have jam," Olaf pointed out. "And four cookbooks which don't have any recipes with jam in them."
"No, there is a few, see? And in the Norwegian section, too. Everything works out perfectly!" I pointed to a section in the book. There were four recipes with jam, one of them being a cute little plate of Norwegian butter cookies. I knew I had found the recipe we were making.
"Wait, before we do anything involving potential messes, let me go get something really quick."
"Wha-what?" Olaf looked puzzled as Loki straight-up jumped off the counter painlessly and hitting the ground, then running off into the house somewhere. Loki disappeared from sight once he turned the corner, and Olaf leaned in towards me and started talking out of the side of his mouth. "He's cah-razy!"
"Ha, very clever, Olaf," I said with a grin. "But I wonder what he is doing,.." my voice trailed off, and sooner than later, Loki returned with a ball of old red cloth in his hands.
"Here, put these on." He ordered, draping himself with a strip of the fabric like a poncho.
"Um, why?" said Olaf.
"So we don't get any stains from the food on ourselves. She will certainly notice if we do."
"Ah, so you're a clean freak, then, huh?" I asked, tying the cloth around my waist, the most likely place for me to get ingredients on my dress.
"He has a good point," said Olaf, wearing his cloth as a scarf. "Even if he is crazy." Loki shot him a weird look.
(We did look pretty fabulous)
Olaf and Loki agreed that we should make the butter cookies and spread the jam over them (butter and jam, a great combination of smells) so we started to gather the ingredients for our cookies. Olaf was in charge of getting the flour and salt, and Loki got the butter and sugar, and I was in charge of the vanilla.
"Um, Elsa," Olaf grunted, dragging the heavy bucket-sized container of flour onto the island. "Just a quick question. Do we even know how to make Norwegian butter cookies? Do we even know how to bake them?"
I bit my lip. How do we cook these? I suppose we could just have them raw, since we weren't actually eating them, but warm cookies smell so much better than cold ones.
"Maybe if we just make really tiny cookies, we can put them in the microwave and bake them that way." I just hoped that what I was telling Olaf was true.
"Good idea. But what's microwave?"
"That thing over there," I pointed to a shiny black box hanging up by the cabinets. "I saw She put a mug of plain water in there once, and it came it steaming."
Olaf's eyes widened in amazement as he turned towards the microwave. "It provides... heat?"
"Yes, Olaf."
"Oh, I've always loved the idea of summer, and sun, and all things hot!"
Wow. The second reference to Frozen in the last two minutes.
"Really?" Loki asked.
"I'm guessing you don't have much experience with heat." I finished with a smile, even if Loki didn't get the joke.
"Well, I used to be afraid of it, you know that one time when we thought there was a fire in the house. But I was only afraid of the fire, not the heat. Fire is scary because you can't control it. Well, unless it's in a fireplace, of course."
"Oh," I said. "So you're not afraid of heat?"
Loki coughed in a rather unusual way, and I realized that we was trying to cover up the word, "melt." Olaf still didn't know he was a toy, and even though he couldn't melt because he wasn't made of real snow, we didn't be the ones to ruin his dreams.
"Well, uh, okay then," I said, trying to change the conversation. "Let's make our cookies, and then we can bake them in the microwave."
"Great! I'll test it out!" said Olaf, and before Loki or I could stop him, he did a running jump from the island to the counter and opened the microwave door, then jumped inside.
"Ummmm..." what exactly does one say to that?
"So this is heat. I love it!" Olaf cried, jumping around in the microwave. It was a strange sight.
"Um, you do realize that the microwave isn't exactly on?" Loki said, looking somewhat amused.
So Olaf was in a microwave now, and we had no idea when the humans would be coming home. It was take charge time. "Alright, you can do whatever, but I'm going to start making these cookies." I said in my best serious leader voice. But the recipe only has a few ingredients. Maybe we should collect a bit more."
My eyes wandered around the kitchen before finally settling on the spice cabinet. That one looked interesting enough. "Maybe to start we should throw in some honey." I said, running across the island and making a jump that impressed even myself to the counter, where the spice cabinet was. I knew it was the spice cabinet because we had spent nearly ten minutes looking for it when trying to find sugar, when finally coming to the conclusion that sugar is in fact not a spice.
"Why?" Loki asked, clearly displeased that we were straying from the plan.
"Because I feel like these cookies require honey."
"Okay, whatever."
"And maybe some cinnamon."
"Elsa..." Loki said in a warning tone.
I stood on my tip-toes and reached for the cinnamon. Forcing open the lid, an immediate burst of scent overpowered me. "Ugh," I coughed, then put the cinnamon back on the shelf. "Way too strong, never mind. Instead, we can put some chocolate drizzle on top."
"Fine then!"
Wow. Loki actually raised his voice for the first time in forever. (haha, third reference) Olaf and I were so shocked by this that we actually stopped moving for a second.
"Or not. I mean, it doesn't have to have chocolate on top."
"No, chocolate's fine," Loki ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry about that. Just got a little stressed."
"No, no, you're right. Olaf's in the microwave and I'm looking for things we don't need. Thanks for shaking some sense into us."
"Yeah, you're welcome, I guess," Loki said quietly. "But hey, you can get something for me. This recipe says to top each cookie with some powdered sugar. Do you know where that is?"
"Um, yeah, I think so." I said, but I was unsure of where to look at all.
"Oh, I do!" It was Olaf. He pushed open the door to the microwave and made another running jump to the island where the rest of us were.
"Wow, you're good at long jumps, Olaf." I commented.
He waved it away. "It's easy. And so is finding sprinkles. It's down here in the cupboard where we found the flour. I saw it earlier." The snowman jumped down from the island and onto the ground, where he opened the cupboard, then not even a second later, held up something that looked to be two saltshakers full of tiny colored beads. Red and green for Christmas colors. But these weren't beads, they were sugar sprinkles.
I liked them immediately, imagining how pretty they would look on top of our cookies once they were done. Who could ever be mad at tiny dots of colored sugar?
"Good work, Olaf. Here, let me help you," he handed me the powdered sugar container and then I pulled him onto the island.
"Alright, now that we've got everything, let's get down the business."
"To defeat the Huns!" Olaf and I both chanted, then fell backwards in laughter. Loki just stood there, looking confused. I guess Marvel was still kind of new to the Disney family, but Frozen had only been around for a little while, too, and yet we knew what Mulan was.
But we did end up getting down to business. The recipe we chose fortunately did not require eggs, so that meant less work. First, we found a tiny bowl and a baby spoon in which to combine our ingredients. We let Olaf stir, and Loki read the steps out loud (I wonder where he learned to read so well) and I measured out the ingredients and added them to the mix. First, we had to cream together the butter adding the sugar in slowly. Then the vanilla extract went in, then the flour and a pinch of table salt.
Once all the ingredients were mixed we were pretty proud of ourselves. Three dolls in the kitchen actually cooking some real food. Definitely an accomplishment of some sort. But then another problem reared it's ugly head.
"Wrap cookie dough in plastic wrap..." Loki read from the cookbook.
"Got it!" Olaf said, jumping back to the floor and opening up a bottom drawer, then pulling a clear plastic sheet from a box that laid inside.
"Once the dough is completely wrapped, set in a bowl and cover it with a lid. Then place inside refrigerator and freeze for thirty minutes. Since we're cutting our recipe in half, fifteen minutes should be fine."
"Ummm," said Olaf. "Re-frid-ger-a-tor? Is that like a microwave?"
"No, it's that thing over there," I said, pointing to the corner of the kitchen with the large stainless steel fridge. "But I don't think we have fifteen minutes to just wait around for the dough to get cold."
"Good point," said Loki. He looked thoughtful, but then he turned around ans grinned at me. "Elsa," he said slyly. "Remember how I saw snowflakes were falling from the ceiling earlier?"
"Yeah- oohhh!" I grinned back, nodding. Of course! I had almost forgotten my powers. Strange thing to forget, I know. You think that having the ability to create ice and snow out of nowhere would be a difficult thing to forget. I flicked on my switch while Olaf and Loki wrapped the ball of cookie dough in the plastic wrap and stored it in a plastic container. Once the lid was on, Loki gave me a nod. I felt the air grow cold around me, then I concentrated it to the container. A perfect ball of ice formed in my hands, and then, whoosh! The container was covered in a thick layer of ice all around.
"There, that should do it." I said proudly, then turned off my switch to prevent from any accidents.
"Woah..." said Olaf, marveling at my work. "How do you do it?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. How are you able to jump so far? And how is Loki able to read so well?"
"Well..." Loki began, but he was interrupted by Olaf.
"Yeah, but that's different. We learned how to jump and how to read. But you have a gift."
I blushed. "Um, thanks."
"The ice should help speed up the cooling process. In the meantime, we can work on getting this mess cleaned up." said Loki.
I looked down and suddenly realized that there was another task at hand. The island was a mess. A big one. Grains of salt crunched under our feet, and butter left oily stains on the bowl and spoon we used. Flour was spread all over the place. In fact, it looked like Olaf had tried to make a snow angel in one of the piles.
"Um, yeah, we should get to that." I said after a minute or so of silence.
"I'll work on washing the dishes." said Loki.
"But why? That's probably the biggest job." said Olaf.
"Because you and Elsa... well, you can't get water on you. She'll notice. But I'll be fine."
"Okay..." I said, feeling kind of bad. "Olaf, can you get some paper towels? We'll need to get this flour and salt off the island."
Loki worked with the dishes in the sink while I cleaned up the island and Olaf was in charge of getting more paper towels and throwing the dirty ones away. Once we were finished, the island looked as good as it had been before. And we were just in time, because the dough was cool enough for me to thaw the ice on the container. It was easy, really. Unlike Elsa in the movie, I can reverse things pretty well. Loki found us a small cookie sheet and we each rolled out balls from the dough and flattened them onto the plate. We wanted to make them big, but not human-sized, and not too small so that we had too many. Just enough for the three of us and six to share. Once we had used up all the dough, Olaf used his long-distance jumping skills to take the cookie sheet over to the microwave and push the button for number one. We weren't really sure how long the cookies would take to bake. The regular cookie recipe calls for an oven, but then again, the regular cookie recipe was not making doll-sized cookies.
One minute was almost enough. Olaf pulled the cookie tray out of the microwave and they were warm to the touch, but soft on the inside, and nobody likes a raw cookie, even if you don't intend to eat it. Another twenty seconds cooked them all the way through. The entire room smelled heavenly. I decided that our little baking test went quite well, even if there were a few obstacles. It was actually just as perfect as I imagined it would be.
"And now," I said, "For the fun part!"
We used the sprinkles that Olaf had found along with some confectioner's sugar to put on the top of our cookies. And of course, the jam. Can't forget the jam. They actually looked very pretty! Of course, it's not the sight, but the smell.
After the cookies were ready, we realized that the only thing left to do was share them with our friends upstairs.
"Where to first?" Loki asked. Ha! Like I had a plan. Well, I guess I was carrying the plate of cookies.
"Um, let's try to find Benny first. I think he needs some cheering up."
Olaf nodded. "Yeah. I think Benny and Napoleon were talking about something serious earlier."
"Good idea. If I remember correctly, they went down the hallway somewhere." said Loki.
It didn't take us long to find them. They were the only other talking dolls in the house besides Bell and Dorothy, and they usually spent their time up in a tree or on a shelf. They were in the room that none of the humans ever used, the one they called The Guest Room, which was of course for guests. We heard their voices outside the hallway, but they seemed less serious than before. Also Magneto was in there, because he was talking with them. Well, I guess he deserved a cookie, too.
"Hey, guys," I said quietly as we stepped into the doorway, with me holding the plate of cookies behind my back. It had to be a surprise. My voice was just loud enough so they could hear me (the three of them turned around to see who it was) but not so much that they thought I was being rude. "Is this a bad time?" I asked.
"Because we made you something!" Olaf finished.
"Ah, you did? Very well. We should like to see." said Napoleon. So I guess it wasn't a bad time to butt in.
"Um... care to explain your attire?" Benny asked. Magneto, who was sitting up on the windowsill of The Guest Room, laughed so hard he actually fell down.
I shot Loki and look that said, "Maybe we should have taken off our aprons before coming in to say hi." He only shrugged. Loki didn't care.
"Well, um, we were in the kitchen," I explained, then pulled the plate out slowly from behind my back. "Making these."
All three of our friends' eyes went wide.
"What are they, exactly?" Benny asked. He grabbed a confectioner's sugar covered one off the plate and examined him closely. I don't know why, but I suddenly thought that he should be wearing a monocle.
"Cookies," Olaf explained. "Butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, and salt."
"And what did you put on them?" Napoleon asked, taking one and handing it up to Magneto, who looked at in a completely puzzled way, turning it in his hands this way and that.
"Well, we put on lots of things. The white ones have confectioner's sugar, and the colored ones have red and green sugar sprinkles for Christmas colors. The last ones have jam on them. Olaf found a little jar of strawberry preserves downstairs."
"Go ahead, try them." said Loki.
"Are they poisonous?" Magneto asked with a scowl.
"Why would we try to poison you?"
"Oh, quit with the trust issues, comrade," said Napoleon, smelling his cookie. "They have quite a lovely scent."
Benny nodded in agreement. He looked happier already.
Once Magneto overcame his fear of the poisoned cookie, he was surprisingly pleased at how good it smelled. Dorothy and Bell even came up the stairs for a visit, probably hearing the enormous amount of chatter that was going on. We gave them a cookie each, and they both agreed that it was one of the best things they had ever smelled. Dorothy even put one in her basket for Toto to snack on later if he wanted, but Bell passed because the pinecones in the downstairs Christmas tree smelled like cinnamon. I explained to her that we were actually about to put cinnamon on our cookies, and Bell laughed as she flew away and told us that the cookies we made were already perfect. Each comment made the smile on my face bigger and bigger.
Soon it was time for the three of us to go back to the Room She Lived In. We waved our goodbyes to Benny, Napoleon, and Magneto, who were settling themselves back into place. Napoleon by the fireplace, Benny under the upstairs Christmas tree, and Magneto returning to his ceramic town in the best mood I had seen the old grump in since, well, never.
"Thank you, friends," said Benny, who was the last one we had to say goodbye to. "You really did but a lot of effort into what you did today, and I think everyone here was very thankful for that."
"It was really Elsa's idea," said Loki. "We were trying to find the meaning of Christmas, and she suggested that we make something from a Christmas cookbook."
"More of this 'meaning of Christmas' stuff, huh?" Benny asked, scratching his chin. "Well, I think my opinion has changed from before. Christmas is about effort."
"Effort?" Olaf asked, as if effort was the last possible thing Christmas could be about.
"Of course. Christmas is all about effort. Going out to by someone a present, that takes effort. Decorating the house, and the yard, or a Christmas tree. That takes effort, too. Giving with your heart to people in need, that takes more effort than anything is reaching out a helping hand. And that's what you all did today. You put in a little bit of your own time and effort to make your friends happy, which is what I think we needed the most today."
"You are very welcome," I replied, beaming. "Oh, and before we go, we want you to have the last cookie." I took the last one of our plate and gave it out to Benny.
Benny took our present and we bade him good-bye, hiding the plate, now full of crumbs, and climbing up onto the dresser. We'd all had an exhausting day, and I think I was ready for some quiet time with just me and She's computer, writing down all that had happened. I guess that's what I'm doing now, but I have to say;
I liked this message the best of all. Benny was right. Christmas is about effort. The effort She took into finding and decorating a little Christmas tree for us. The effort the humans put in to take care each-other. The effort Olaf, Loki and I took to brighten up our friends' days. The effort it takes to make each Christmas, whether good or bad.
Effort may have been the real meaning of Christmas, but we couldn't give up yet, not even if we had found it all along, because I didn't call it Elsa's 12 Days of Christmas for nothing. I had to write six more posts whether I liked it or not. But that's putting effort into something, isn't it?
The humans came home a few minutes later. Turns out dolls are very good at timing when their humans are going to be home. I heard them rustling around downstairs, out for more Christmas shopping because a set of lights they had used last year had refused to work and the closest place to go and buy Christmas lights was an hour away. Bad for them, I guess, but good for us!
"Mm, something smells good in here," I heard one human say from downstairs. "Like cookies. Must be that new air freshener I put in yesterday."
Olaf and I shared a secret giggle. Even Loki looked content that everything had worked out for the better. The only trace we left was the smell of cookies in the air. If only they knew!
Putting effort into Christmas,
Queen Elsa
***
The Norway Club's Norwegian Butter Cookies
We used a recipe from one of the human's cookbooks, but we had to change it up a bit since dolls are smaller. Even though we smell, not taste, things, these are edible cookies that even someone like Magneto will enjoy!
For the ingredients, you will need:
1/4 of a cup of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons white sugar
1/4 of a cup and 4 tablespoons baker's flour
A pinch of table salt to taste (about the size of a Loki handful)
Toppings (jams, sprinkles, confectioner's sugar)
Toppings (jams, sprinkles, confectioner's sugar)
You will need to cream the butter in a bowl with a spatula or spoon. Add the sugar in slowly while mixing. Add in the vanilla, then the 1/4 of a cup and 3 tablespoons of flour. Find a Loki and tell him to measure out a handful of salt to put in the mixture. (But he probably won't do it because of The Code of Dolls.) A human-sized pinch of salt works well, too. Stir it all together in the bowl. Your dough should be kind of soft. That's when you add in the last tablespoon of flour. Then find some plastic wrap and wrap the ball of cookie dough completely. Get a nice container with a lid and put the ball of dough inside. If you have an Elsa doll with magic powers, ask her to cover the container with ice. But she probably won't do that, because of The Code of Dolls. A refrigerator works too. Freeze for ten minutes. Once the time's up, get a small plate and roll the dough into balls and press them onto the cookie tray. Bake in the microwave for one full minute. Then take the plate out, poke each cookie with a fork, then put it back in the microwave for thirty seconds. Once the time's up, you can decorate your Norwegian butter cookies any way you like! We used sprinkles, confectioner's sugar, and strawberry jam, but I think melted chocolate and honey would be good toppings, too. They should be good enough to smell! Or eat, if that's your thing.
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