The Last Christmas Cookie

Savoring that great cookie

Manny knew who ate the last Christmas Cookie this year, the one he had been saving for more than a week.

It all began when Sue ordered premium Christmas Cookies from an online store famous for its $30 cookies.

As she explained it to Manny, plenty of wealthy and not-so-wealthy people ordered it for its novelty. In fact, the price for the icing-coated sugar cookies increased each year and so did their word-of-mouth business.

So, Sue ordered four cookies, not in the $30 range but still $7 each, one for each in the family, plus she paid half that in shipping so they’d arrive fresh.

When the cookies came, Sue made sure the kids – and Manny – knew that these were not ordinary cookies. It didn’t matter to the kids because they devoured them before the packaging hit the table, and then went back to playing their video games.

Sue and Manny, however, began making plans about how they would eat theirs.

Would they eat theirs in front of their self-absorbed and undisciplined kids?

Would they all of a sudden get up in the middle of the night and eat it for fear that others would get to it instead?

Or would they just go out on a date and eat them as special treats?

One thing’s for sure, they would never, not in a million years, eat their cookie as the kids had eaten theirs.

Turns out, Sue ate hers in the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep. She said it was a lapse in discipline.

Manny, however, made it known that he was going to eat his on Christmas Day in front of his family just to taunt them.

Each day he checked the clear plastic window of the elaborate box to make sure it was still there.

Christmas Eve came and it was still there.

When the Day arrived, Manny tip-toed down the stairs to grab his premium cookie. The family wasn’t around like he had wanted, only because he was up before the sun.

He flung open the box and pulled out the eighth of a cookie left, held it up, and shoved it in his mouth.

Manny knew all along that bits of the cookie was being eaten by any and all family members, but didn’t let them get the satisfaction of them knowing that he knew.

Sue finally stumbled down for breakfast at eight and asked, “Did you eat that treasured cookie of yours yet?”

“Yep I did and it was great.”

“Was it what you expected?” she asked.

“More or less, mostly less. Say, Sue, was my cookie what you expected?”

“I’ll have breakfast ready for you in a few minutes.”

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