♫Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

     “Vanilla?”

“Nope, try again.”

“Whipping cream!”

“Now you’re way off.”

Taemin huffs and crosses his arms, blindfold still wrapped snugly around his head to block his view, “Alright, what is it?”

Smiling to himself, Minho takes the blindfold off the other’s face, and holds the peppermint candy in front of Taemin’s face.

Taemin blinks at it, before exclaiming out, “How the heck was I supposed to guess that?!”

Minho simply chuckled and stuffed the candy into the younger male’s mouth, “I expected you to answer at least something close to it.”

Taemin puffed his cheeks but went back to biting on the hard candy. He watched as Minho went to the fridge and got out an egg, which he cracked and poured into the butter and sugar creamed mixture they were already working on.

“Taemin-ah, can you get me the peppermint extract and vanilla?” Minho calls to the other while turning on the electric mixture and mixing everything thoroughly. Taemin gets the needed ingredients right away, as well as the right measurements, which he all pours into the bowl, letting Minho continue to beat while he rushed to get the flour mixture. He helped add some of it slowly in, smiling to himself while glancing to Minho every now and then, happy to see that the other was enjoying himself as well.

After soft dough was formed, Minho places it on the floured counter and forms it into a thick cylinder, then cuts it into 3 equal pieces.  Minho hands Taemin one of the pieces along with red food coloring. Taemin takes it and puts one drop on the dough and folds it in, before kneading it. The color slowly begins to change, until it stops at a light pink. Taemin looks over to see that Minho had done the same with his, except he had used green coloring, giving the dough a pale green color to it.

“Now, let’s start making the canes.” Minho said, tearing a piece of the green dough and grinning to Taemin. Taemin grins back and he does the same with his dough, and they both roll it out to about 6 cm thick, before doing the same with the piece of dough they had left plain. Then, they twisted the two different pieces of dough together into the shape of a candy cane, pinching the ends to seal it.

After doing all that, they put it onto an ungreased cookie sheet and pop it into the oven.

“So…You wanna make some cake pops?” Minho asks, resting his palms on the messy counter and smiling to Taemin.

Taemin nodded quickly, and they got right to work.

They made multiple cake pops, even though they both ended up eating more than they made. But overall, it was an enjoyable experience.

After the candy cane cookies had finished baking and cooled, the two of them enjoyed it together along with some hot chocolate made especially by Minho.

“Are we done already?” Taemin asks, feeling quite disappointed after they had downed most of the cake pops and candy cane cookies, as the rest were to be left for selling.

Minho shook his head and gave the younger male’s forehead and light push, “We still have the gingerbread house, remember?”

Taemin immediately brightened up, remembering the house pieces they had made last day. He rushed over to the end of the counter to retrieve a paper bag sitting behind a vase of flowers. Meanwhile, Minho got out the candy decorations and piping icing.

They arranged everything on the counter in front of them, and got out the baked pieces of the gingerbread house.

“Let’s start!” Taemin chirps, reaching for the bag of icing straight away. Minho grabbed his wrist quickly, “Woah there! We need to build the house first.” He notes, chuckling at the other’s eagerness.

Taemin pouts while pulling his wrist away and rubbing it, “I knew that…”

The construction part was a lot of work, as it involved balancing techniques in order for none of the pieces to fall apart. Eventually, they got the house made. Icing was leaking from the corners of the houses, and the sides of the roof; but it still looked appetizing.

“NOW can we start decorating?” Taemin asks, eyes lingering to the cups of M&Ms and jelly beans.

“Not yet,” Minho shook his head, “We have to let the icing dry a bit. If we put it on right away, the whole house will fall apart.”

Taemin pouts unhappily at this, and rests his elbows on the counter, leaning down to gaze at the lovely, but plain-looking house, “How long will it take?”

“Not long. You just have to be patient.” Minho said while going to rinse his icing-dirtied hands in the sink.

Taemin groans slightly while his eyes trail to the candies sitting there, waiting.

Minho gives a small chuckle and, after drying his hands, made his way over to his lover, wrapping his arms around the other’s small waist and pulling him close, while leaning down to plant soft kisses on Taemin’s plump lips, “Did you sneak some of the candy a while earlier?” Minho asks between kisses, tasting hints of chocolate and icing from the other’s lips. Taemin simply smiled and pulled the other’s embrace tighter around him.

The two of them share their usual gentle and sweet kisses, swaying side to side before Taemin is the one to pull apart from Minho’s lips by a few inches, “Can we decorate it now?” He asks in a hush voice.

Minho hums in thought while continuing to step side to side along with Taemin, “Already? I’m not sure…”

“Please?” Taemin begs and nuzzles his face up the crook of Minho’s tender neck. Minho lets out a soft laugh, the other’s nose providing a small sort of tickle, “Alright, I guess so.”

Taemin grins happily and let’s go of the other’s hands before going to the gingerbread house, already starting to get some of the M&Ms and squeeze a little icing on one of the ends.

They both start to decorate the house, until they used up all the pieces of candy and half of the royal icing.

The finishing result of the house was spectacular. At least, in the eyes of Taemin and Minho. To any normal person, it would look like a complete mess of a house, with icing on places icing shouldn’t be, and candies sliding down the sides. But it was something Taemin and Minho made together, and it was perfect in their eyes.

Minho and Taemin shared the house together, each eating from one side, though they did take a bite from the other’s side of the roof every now and then.

The gingerbread house was gone in a matter of moments, leaving the two of them with the bubbly warmth from all the sugar, and the hot chocolate to wash it down.

“Can we stay closed for a little longer? I want to spend some more time with you.” Taemin requests, being the usual blunt person he was.

Minho smiles in response and nods in agreement before leaning in for another sugar-coated kiss.

**NOTES**

-Waah, it’s finished. Like I said, just a small little thing before the holidays kick in and I get bombarded with volunteer work…Yeah.
-If anyone wants to know, 2min own their own pastry store, which is pretty much their home as well (ex, bedrooms and whatnot).
-Hope you guys have a safe and fun holiday, Happy Christmas!

-AngelicJoker