text: Bedtime Story “Hey Grandkids! Do you want to hear a bedtime story?” Luke asked. “Of course we do!” exclaimed the children! “Okay! It was a long time ago when your grandmother and I worked at rival bakeries. Molly, your grandma, named her bakery, Molly’s Doughy Delights , and mine was titled Bake My Day . At that time, your grandma was sassy and rude.” he said with a side glance at Molly. She forcefully nodded in agreement. “I guess I was. But unlike me, Grandpa was kind and funny.” Molly said with a quiet giggle. “On the first of December, people flooded in with orders for the Christmas season.” told Luke. “Everyone in town was ordering delicious treats! Both Molly and I wanted to be the best bakers in town. We tried to bake better treats than the others and earn the most money. When time came for the Annual Christmas Festival, the town held a Bake Off where five bakeries would compete in three rounds to win $1,000,000. The lucky bakeries chosen were Molly’s Doughy Delights , Bake My Day, Downtown Bakery , Sugar and Spice, and Cherry on Top .” “The next week we started the first round of the Bake Off.” Molly stated. “We were assigned to create a cupcake with a Christmas surprise inside. Inside my chocolate cupcake, I put peppermint candy, and in Luke’s banana cupcake was a huge load of chocolate! I can’t remember what everyone else baked, though. Do you know, Luke?” added Molly. “I am not sure. I am pretty old. My memory is fried up! I don’t even remember my name!” Luke joked. The kids giggled. They could have laughed for a long time! “Quiet down, kids. I remember what Downtown Bakery made.” Molly recalled. “They made a vanilla cupcake with caramel inside, but that didn’t go well. The caramel was so hot that it melted the bottom, and burned a hole in the bottom of the cupcake. The caramel leaked all over the plate and made a huge mess. Lucky for us, Downtown Bakery was eliminated.” “One week later, marked the start of the second round.” explained Luke. “Little did we know, it would be harder than we thought! We had to work with a partner to make a seven-layered cake and decorate it like a Christmas tree. Six hours were given to us to create our Christmas cakes. The judges combined Cherry on Top and Sugar and Spice. Which meant, Molly and I were selected to be paired up. It was hard working with Molly because we were long-time enemies. Molly demanded things to be her way, but I wanted it to be different. We barely got done in six hours, and in that time-” “What did you make?” asked one of the kids. “Well, I saved a picture in the attic! Let me go get it.” Molly answered. She went to the attic and brought down an old, broken, dusty box. She opened it up, and inside was a painted box, a framed picture, and another box that was more formal than the other. Molly took out the hand-painted box and when she lifted the top off, the box tipped over and hundreds of pictures came flooding out. The kids jumped back hurriedly, but then began to scramble through all the old-fashioned photos. Molly tried not to let them see too many pictures or else it would spoil the story! Luke picked up a photo and showed it to the kids. “This is my bakery, kids! Bake My Day! Oh, and this is Molly’s Doughy Delights ! Ooh! Look at me with my blond hair and my bright blue eyes, and Molly with her beautiful red hair and green eyes. She’s wearing her ‘sassy skirt’ in that picture.” “What’s this picture?” a child asked holding a photo in his hand. “What about this one?” another grandchild asked. Every single kid was grabbing images and asking questions. Soon the room was filled with noise. Everyone was talking at once and nothing could be heard. The grandparents’ ear drums were bleeding! “Quiet everyone. We should clean this up and get you all ready for bed.” Luke spoke. All the children started to put the pictures back into the box, and in a couple minutes, they were done. “Is this it?” announced one of the kids. “Oh, yes. That’s it!” Molly replied. The kids settled down, and went into the bedroom, even Luke and Molly, to finish their bedtime story. When all the kids were snuggled up tight in bed, Molly showed them the picture of the yummy cake Luke and she made. “Can everyone see it?” Luke asked. “Yes!” the kids responded. Molly started the story again. The picture was black and white, but still as vibrant as a photo can get. The image was long and skinny with two people on the sides. Luke and Molly were standing beside their seven-layered Christmas tree cake that was taller than they were. Every layer was a different flavor. Chocolate, vanilla, banana, strawberry, red velvet, lemon, and cheesecake. The cake had green frosting around the whole thing in little piped lines to look like pine needles. There were various ornaments made of little candies, all different shapes and sizes! There were lights and tinsel wrapped around the cake, all of it edible. The little painted almond bulbs on the fondant string looked like they actually lit up! Powdered sugar was sprinkled on the tree to make it look snowy. The cake resembled a Christmas tree exactly! “Woah!” the kids said in awe. “What did the other people make?” asked one of the children. “They made all of their layers vanilla.” Luke explained. “Their green frosting was very neat and it was lime flavored. They used isomalt globes for ornaments. It looked really nice and the judges loved the presentation. Luke and I thought they were going to win, but their lime frosting was so strong it made it very sour, and their cake was underbaked. “Well, who won?” exclaimed one kid nervously. “ Bake My Day and Molly’s Doughy Delights!” said Molly. “Before we started the third and final round, Molly made an announcement.” “Here’s what I announced at the Bake Off. ‘We do not want to go any further! We will both drop out and split the money now.’” “At that time, I was so confused and wanted to win.” Luke recalled. “$1,000,000 was on the line! I couldn’t give it up to split it with Molly. I was so competitive and I still am, so I had to talk with Molly.” “‘One moment. Let me speak with my fellow contestant.’ is what I stated at the contest.” “Why would you say that, Grandma?” the youngest grandchild added with fear and confusion in her voice. “You will know once I tell you what I told Luke.” Molly assured. “Before Molly said anything to me, I asked her ‘Why would you do that? Don’t you want to win?’” “So I said to him, ‘Yes. I do want to win, but the truth is, I am in love with you. I don’t want to compete with you. I only want to spend the rest of my life with you. I love you, Luke.’” “How could you love him, if you were enemies?” mentioned a child. “I don’t know. I just felt it at that time!” Molly exclaimed. “What did you say to that confession, Grandpa? It was so straight-forward!” the eldest child asked in astonishment. Well I said this. ‘I’ve liked you from the start, too! I used to think you were rude and sassy, but after working with you, things became clear that we are destined for each other.’” “When everyone left the competition, Luke and I were still lingering there. We received our money--$500,000 each. We sat down on a bench together, looking at our cake. Luke got up from the bench and kneeled down on one knee. Holding my hand he said to me, ‘I love you so much, Molly! I want to spend my life with you. Will you marry me?’ I started crying! I was so happy, I didn’t know what to say to him! The only words able to come out of my mouth were ‘Where’s the ring?’” “I didn’t have a ring at that moment. I didn't know what to do!” Luke declared. “The only other thing I could think of was the cake! I started walking up to the cake and told Molly, ‘About that... I don’t have a ring, but I think this works!’ I scooped some frosting off their Christmas tree cake and shoved it into Molly’s mouth. Molly was so offended that she threw some back at me! We were throwing frosting at each other until there was no more to take from the cake!” “We sat down on the same bench as before, but something felt different.” Molly told. “We both looked up at the same moment and saw mistletoe hanging from a branch on the luscious, pink willow tree above. We looked at each other for a moment and then we kissed each other. The rest is history.”