December 18, 1995

Bells will be ringin' the sad, sad news

Oh, what a Christmas to have the blues

My baby's gone, I have no friends

To wish me greetings once again

The sounds of Christmas music poured out from the stereo and floated throughout the Wilson home, and the enticing aroma of vanilla, butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon wafted through the air. Garland adorned every staircase in the home, and mistletoe hung from every doorway. One week until Christmas, and preparations were well under way.

"Joshua Scott Chasez! If you keep eating the cookies there will be none to give to the neighbors," Char scolded. She turned around just in time to catch JC sneaking a cookie from one of the silver trays on the island and attempting to discreetly shove the entire cookie into his mouth.

Caught red handed, JC blushed. He chewed slowly and guiltily as he burned under Char's hot gaze. "Sorry, there just so good," he muffled between chews.

"Dude, she full named you," Joey laughed.

"Shut up!" JC scoffed, giving Joey a playful shove.

"You're supposed to be filling the jars with cookies, not eating them," Char said, hands on her hips.

"Yes ma'am." Chris said, picking up a glittering mason jar from the kitchen table, and walking it to the island. "Hey Char, what order do these go in again?"

"No particular order just make sure that each jar gets one of each: a caramel apple cookie, a snickerdoodle, a brown butter cookie, a cranberry-orange cookie, a white chocolate macadamia, and a gingerbread," Char instructed. "And then there's more than enough chocolate chip cookies for each jar to get extras."

"Got it," Chris said. He began to grab a cookie from each perfectly sorted batch of cookies that were spread out onto four trays on the island, and carefully stacked them inside the mason jars as not to break them.

For the past four hours, Char had been diligently baking cookies and pies from scratch, in preparation to pass them out to neighbors. A long-held tradition, Char would bake cookies the week before Christmas, and put them in mason jars, that she had decorated to look like Santa bellies, and pass them out to her friends, family, and neighbors. Every year she switched up her cookie recipes, and she would start painting, glittering, and shellacking the mason jars right after Halloween. This was the first year that she was doing her Christmas Cookie Giveaway in Orlando, and she wanted it to be perfect.

"Who are the pies for?" Joey asked curiously, pointing towards the assortment of pies laid out on the counter across the room. The best part about being in Orlando for Christmas was having the guys assist her in the cookie giveaway. Besides JC, two of his bandmates from the new vocal group that he was a part of had decided to help. Joey Fatone, and Chris Kirkpatrick who both Char and JC had known ever since moving to Orlando had offered to help her out. Justin Timberlake, Char and JC's former MMC castmate, as well as member of the group was spending Christmas in his hometown of Millington, Tennessee, and their other bandmate, Lance Bass had gone back home to Clinton, Mississippi to be with his family for the holidays.

"The pies go to the Brookdale Dr. Philips nursing home," Char replied, as she added a fresh, cooled batch of cranberry-orange cookies onto a tray. JC reached for one, and with reflexes like a cat, Char smacked his hand.

"Ow," JC whined.

"Except one pie goes to Mrs. Nuefield. She just had her hip replacement surgery six weeks ago, and her daughter and son-in-law got snowed in in Boston, so she's all alone," Char explained, referring to the friendly sexagenarian who lived three doors down. "Give her the salted caramel apple pie, it's her favorite."

"Got it," Joey replied, jotting down the instructions in his notepad.

"Okay, these jars are ready to go out," Chris announced. Chris had neatly and diligently filled over twenty jars with cookies. Much to Char's surprise since she seriously questioned his capabilities due to his nerve-wracking high jinks and super hyper personality.

"Great," Char clapped excitedly. "Do you guys think you can start passing them out?"

"Sure," JC replied, pulling his car keys out of his back pocket. "Do you have the directory?" He asked Char.

"Oh yeah, I put it on the fridge," Char said. A month ago, in preparation for the cookie giveaway, Char had created a directory of people in the neighborhood with names and addresses. JC grabbed the five-page directory from the door of the large stainless-steel refrigerator, which was being held up by a Disney World magnet.

" I'm gonna go pop the trunk," JC announced. He planted a kiss on Char's forehead and headed toward the back door.

"Why does he get to drive?" Chris protested.

"Because we want this to arrive in one piece!" Joey replied, packing the jars into a cardboard box.

"Hey, my driving's not that bad," Chris shot back.

"Are you kidding me, I drive better than you," Joey quipped.

"You?" Chris scoffed. "You don't even have your license!"

"My point exactly," Joey responded. He picked up a box and carried it to the back door. Chris filled a box with the pies and followed behind Joey. Char followed them to the door.

"Remember, Mr. and Mrs. Findley have a rottweiler who likes to play in the front yard, and he doesn't like strangers and isn't very friendly, so go to the back," Char instructed. "Mrs. Hall will only answer the door if you ring the doorbell twice, and Mrs. Newton has a tabby cat that likes to pounce on everyone who comes to the door. Oh, and don't forget to give Mrs. Nuefield a pie. Caramel apple!"

"Don't worry Babe, we got this!" JC called to Char before getting in the car.

Joey and Chris loaded the boxes securely into the back of JC's Jeep Grand Cherokee and got into the car. Chris in the passenger seat, and Joey in the back.

JC started up the car, and Char watched as they drove away. With fingers crossed, she hoped and prayed that everything would go smoothly.

"Please God, don't let them mess this up!"