December 5th: Always Time for Cookies by Dawnwind

“Rosie,” Edith Dobey glanced at her watch, grabbing her coat and hat. “I have to run over to the church to bring these cookies to the Christmas faire.”

Rosie glanced up from coloring book. She was determined to finish the entire thing in the next two weeks. That way, Santa would notice that she no longer had a coloring book and bring her a new one. Along with the other things she had asked for. “Okay,” she said, feeling all grown up if Mommy was willing to leave her by herself.

“It shouldn’t take half an hour.” Edith crammed two boxes of gingerbread and one of iced sugar into a carry bag. “Starsky and Hutch will be coming by for the other boxes of cookies to bring to Marshall School, so you won’t be alone for very long.”

“Good! I missed them.”

“And Cal should be back from basketball practice soon, too,” Edith added.

“Mommy! I can be by myself! I turned eight last month,” Rosie insisted. Her birthday had been before Thanksgiving.

Edith smiled lovingly, stroking a gloved hand down her daughter’s cheek. “So grown up.”

Rosie grinned, waving as her mom dashed out. She switched on the television when she heard the car backing out of the garage, a special treat because she was alone. Usually, she was not allowed to watch TV on weekdays.

Picking a green crayon to fill in the grass and flowers behind the characters prancing on the page of her coloring book, Rosie watched a rerun of Bewitched. Samantha twitched her nose, decorating a Christmas tree in seconds.

The knock on the front door almost made her jump out of her skin, red, purple, and brown crayons scattering across the carpet. “Who is it?” she called, turning off the TV in case it was Cal or her father. Of course, they wouldn’t have knocked.

“Starsky!” came a male voice from the other side of the door.

Jumping up, Rosie pulled the heavy door open excitedly. She’d actually been really happy that her mother wasn’t around when her two honorary uncles came over. She had a very specific question she wanted to ask.

“Hey, Rosie,” Hutch greeted, pulling her into a hug. “How’s my favorite girl?”

“Mommy left a box of cookies in the kitchen.” Rosie beckoned the two men into the back of the house, trying hard to figure out how to ask what she wanted to without sounding… what was it that Shoshonnah had called it? Anti-semi, or something like that.

“Yum.” Starsky’s fingers twitched when he opened the lid to see the iced cookies. “These look terrific. Your mom is a great baker. Can I try one?”

“Starsky,” Hutch chastised with a laugh, shaking his finger.

“Mommy put the ones we can eat over here.” Rosie hefted a plate with the cookies that had broken or come out misshapen. Rosie had iced them. “I made this one special for you, Uncle Dave.” She selected a blue and green star studded with silver candy balls.

“Thanks, sweetie.” Starsky bit into the cookie, rolling his eyes with appreciation.

Satisfied that he was enjoying the snack, Rosie decided to blurt out her question. Make it quick, like yanking off a Band-Aid. “My friend Shoshonnah says that Jesus was Jewish.”

Starsky choked, coughing violently on the cookie until Hutch pounded him on the back.

Rosie slunk back nervously, not sure what she had caused.

Starsky inhaled, feeling the cookie crumbs grinding in his throat, teetering on the edge of his trachea to kill him dead, or whatever it was rogue cookie crumbs did when they dropped into the lungs. He charged to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of milk to pour into a tumbler Rosie helpfully supplied. The first gulp of cold milk was life-saving.

“I’m sorry…” Rosie looked on the verge of tears. “I didn’t mean to….”

“Starsky just swallowed wrong,” Hutch said quickly, giving Starsky’s shoulder a gentler pat. “Wasn’t anything you did.”

“I—” Starsky finished the glass of milk, feeling ready to eat the rest of the cookie, but certainly not answer Rosie’s laden question. He waved at his partner magnanimously. “I think Hutch should field this one.”

Hutch widened his eyes, hands up as if warding off an attacker.

Squaring his shoulders, Starsky took a second cookie and sat at the round table by the kitchen window, coaxing Rosie over. “The simple answer is, Jesus’ parents—”

“Mary and Joseph,” Rosie put in with a decisive nod.

“Were Jewish.”

“I played Mary in the Nativity play last year at church.”

“There, you see? You know all about it,” Starsky said with relief, practically eating a whole single-antlered reindeer iced in red and green.

“But if he is Jewish…” she said hesitantly. “How come we’re not? We’re Baptist.”

“When Jesus was born, people thought he was the Messiah sent by God to be king of the Israelites,” Hutch said folding his hands on the red and white checked table cloth.

“That’s what Reverend Baldwin said.” Rosie helped herself to a star decorated in yellow with a wild abundance of red and blue jimmies.

“By the time he died, there was a lot of politics and messy stuff that takes years to understand,” Hutch said carefully. “My grandfather, Farfar, was a Lutheran pastor.”

“What’s Lutheran?” Rosie asked, rubbing her forehead in confusion. She left a smear of yellow frosting above her right eyebrow.

Starsky cleared his throat, looking at Hutch. “You think we should get the captain to ‘splain this?”

“No!” Rosie protested. “No, no. That’s not something he’d want to know… I mean.” She huffed a breath. “He tol’ me the reason you don’t go to church like us is cause you’re Jewish, like Shoshonnah, and so I thought you’d know about Jesus.” She tugged on one of her many short braids clipped with red and green barrettes, biting her bottom lip. “Cause, it’s his birthday soon, and…”

“Yes, it’s Christmas soon, huh.” Starsky took her hand, smoothing her braids. “A day to celebrate the birth of a baby, and love and hope.”

“St. Paul said that faith, hope, and love are important, but the greatest one is love,” Hutch murmured. “He wanted people to love Jesus and follow his teachings, so he and many of the apostles, Jesus’ mom, and others started doing things the Jewish authorities didn’t approve of, which eventually split the religions in two. Does that make any sense?”

Rosie shrugged. “Why?”

“Mystery of the ages, schweethart,” Starsky emphasized the Bogie-like impression. “Some people get angry over the differences. Most people just love each other and accept that we all got something different.”

Rosie dimpled at that. “Like me an’ Shoshonnah. She’s gotta be home on Friday by sundown and go to temple on Saturday, so she can’t go to Brownies. I go to church on Sunday with Mommy, Daddy ,and Cal.”

“Exactly. And celebrate Jesus being born,” Hutch said, using his thumb to wipe away the frosting on her forehead.

“Did that answer your question?” Starsky asked, very glad to hear the sound of a car pulling into the driveway,

“I’m not sure,” Rosie said honestly. “I think it starts more questions.”

“Good.” Hutch beamed. “Shows you are smart. Pay attention, enjoy Christmas, and keep asking the difficult questions.”

“Rosie, I’m home!” Edith’s voice came from the front door. “I see Starsky’s car…”

“I got one more question, then.” Rosie stood tall with a gleam in her eye. “Would you come to service on Christmas Eve? I get to recite what Linus says in Charlie Brown’s Christmas. It’s okay if you don’t want to, Uncle Dave—”

“We’ll both be there,” Starsky promised, remembering the lisping delivery of the voice actor who played Linus in the annual TV cartoon. “For Behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy.”

“Which shall be to all people,” Rosie took up the narrative happily as her mother came in the kitchen.

“For unto you is born this day—” Edith added, taking off her gloves with an indulgent smile.

“In the city of David,” Hutch put in, taking Starsky’s hand as he said his name.

“A savior which is Christ the Lord.” they all concluded together.

Bible quotation is Luke 2: 8-14

Click on the image to view it larger.