RUNAWAY COOKIES

  My wife, Francesca, has a wonderful classroom holiday tradition.  Last Wednesday she read "The Gingerbread  Man"  to her 20 pre-K students.  On Thursday she baked gingerbread men with her kids. 
  As the cookies were cooling the class went to lunch.  When they returned from the cafeteria the little brown men were gone!
 It happens every year. 

Before they ran away
   
They search the room then figured they had probably slipped under the door.  The crack at the bottom is about as wide as a gingerbread man. The whole class then searched the school for the runaway cookies. 
   Stopping at several classrooms they ask the students, "Our gingerbread men ran away.  Have you seen them?"   They always get, "Sorry, we haven't been here" or "Yes.  They went that-away!", from students who participated in these desperate hunts when they were younger.
   The four-year-olds finally get to the front office where the scent of fresh ginger cookies hangs in the air. 
   The kids were happy to find their little men resting in a tray on a small table.  The students gobbled them up before they can run off again. 
   Wouldn't it be nice to end every desperate search with success and warm cookies?