“Do you want to do a Christmas service too?”

“Yes I want to.” Timmy sighs. “But what can I do? I am just a little puppy!”

“O Timmy, you can do a lot. If you do not eat mixed eggs with sugar and let us make gingerbread, it will be your Christmas service!”

“Really? I can do it. It is easy!”

“Yes it is easy for you, but it will mean a lot for those dogs who will get gingerbread!

“I will do it with pleasure! I will let you make gingerbread! It will be my Christmas service!” Timmy smiles.

“This is a very important type of service.” Mary explains. “We call it a ‘sacrifice’.”

“A sacrifice? What is it?” Timmy asks.

“A sacrifice is when you really want something, but you give it to others.”

“But why is a sacrifice so important?”

“Because you learn how to share. A puppy that can share good things with others will be very happy in his life.”

“Why?”

“Because then he will have good friends who will share too!”

“Oh, I want to have good friends. I want to learn to share!”

“Timmy I know you can do it. You are very good little puppy!” Mary smiles.

Timmy smiles too.

“I will go to mom and tell her that I am serving! I will tell her that I know how to sacrifice and share!”

“Good job, Timmy!” We say all together.

Timmy happily smiles and runs away from the kitchen to his mom.

New words

sacrifice – жертва, жертвовать

bowl – чаша

Exercises

Answer the questions

1. What are the puppies going to make today?

2. Who pulls a recipe out of his or her pocket?

3. Why does Timmy come to the kitchen?

4. What rule of politeness does Rex teach Timmy?

5. Why does Timmy start crying?

6. What does Betsy say to help Timmy stop crying?

7. Why do you think it is important to learn to sacrifice?

True or false

1. Archie is the gingerbread specialist.

2. We need potatoes, carrots and onions to make tasty gingerbread.

3. Timmy likes the gingerbread dough a lot.

Guess the riddles

1. These are special cookies with ginger. People like to make them during Christmas time.

2. It is when you really want something, but you give it to others because they need it more then you.

3. This is something white and very sweet. If you want to make cookies you put it in your dough.

Chapter 8

Gingerbread

“What do we do next?” Betsy asks Mikky.

“Now we need to put all the other ingredients in the bowl and mix them.” Mikky answers.

Archie takes a bag with groceries and says:

“Let’s see, what do we have here? We have flour, butter, ground ginger and ground cinnamon.”

“First of all we need to melt our butter.”Mikky says.

“How do we do it?” Betsy asks.

“We need to put it in a hot frying pan.” Mikky answers.

“Mikky you know so much about cooking. Where did you learn all of this?” Mary asks.

“I love to cook. I usually help my mom. When I grow up, I want to be a chef!” Mikky answers with a proud voice.

“This is great! A chef is a very good profession,” says Mary and puts butter in the frying pan. “I want to be an artist. I love to draw. And what do you want to be, when you grow up, Rex?”

“I want to be a border guard like my father. I want to be big and strong like him. I want to protect our country!”

“That is a good choice!” Mary smiles. “The butter is melting. What do we do next?”

“We need to put the butter in the bowl with eggs and sugar, then we put flour in it and the ground ginger with the ground cinnamon.”

Betsy takes flour and puts it in the bowl.

“And what do you want to be Archie?”

Archie puts the ground ginger with the ground cinnamon in the bowl and answers,“Well, I do not know for sure yet, but I like to read and write a lot. Maybe one day I will become a writer.”

“This is great! You will become a very famous writer! I am sure. What do you like to write about?” Betsy asks.

“I can write little poems now, but one day I hope to write a big novel. I want to write a novel about puppies’ adventures into space.”

“It is sounds so great! I know you will write this novel one day!”

“Thank you Betsy! And what do you want to be?”

“I like to dance, so maybe I will be a dancer. But I like to dance on the ice too, so maybe I will be a figure skater.”

“Oh, dancing on the ice is so beautiful. I love to watch figure skating competitions during the Olympics!” Mary says.

“Maybe one day you will become an Olympics champion!” Archie says.

“That would be nice!” Betsy smiles.

“Ok, Team!” Mikky says. “Now it is time to mix all the ingredients and make the dough.”

“Do we need a mixer this time too?” Archie asks.

“No. This time we will do it with our paws. First of all we need to wash them very well.”

We come to the sink and wash our paws with soap.

“Well done! Now we can make the dough. I’ll show you.” Mikky comes to the bowl and starts to mix all the ingredients with his paws. In ten minutes, the dough is ready.

“Now we have real dough.” He says. “Now let’s make funny forms and let’s put our gingerbread in the oven.”

All puppies come to the bowl and take a piece of dough.