Spring Cookies

In the house my family rented from the Catholic convent in De Smet, Idaho we had a few memorable moments. My sister is 6 years older than myself so she ended up babysitting me and my younger brother. Being so young, 11 years old, she thought more like a child than an adult. One December Saturday she wanted to be with her friends but instead she was babysitting us. To entertain ourselves she decided we should bake some peanut butter cookies. We were excited because we could surprise Mom and Dad with the cookies and we could all eat as many cookies as we wanted before they came home. I remember helping measure and stir, my sister even let me put some cookies on the baking sheet. In the oven they went to bake for 10 minutes. We set out glasses of milk to drink with our sample tasting. We went to the living room to play cards while we waited for the rest of the 10 minutes to lapse. We soon forgot the cookies. The banging on the door and the yelling of the nuns from the convent broke up the card game. As we rushed to answer the door we had to pass through the kitchen which was filled with acrid black smoke. As I ran to open the door, sis opened the oven and removed the black pucks. After the nuns "admonished" Jerry to tears, they "assured" us not to bake anymore cookies. Jerry was worried that Mom and Dad would be angry over the burnt cookies, cookie sheet and the commotion we caused the nuns. To hide her "sin" ( the burnt cookies and ruined baking sheet) she buried them in the snow bank under the eave of the house. We opened all the doors and window, mopped the floors with pinesol, bleached the sink, anything we could think of to get rid of or cover the smell of the burnt disaster. When Dad and Mom got home they praised us very much for all the cleaning we had done. We felt we had gotten away with everything and soon forgot about it all. However, when May came around, the weather warmed and the snow had melted Dad found the baking sheet with the burnt cookies still on it. We were found out! Of course enough time had passed since the "sin" that Dad was not mad and we were relieved.