A/N: Kat and Theresa now have their own Tumblr blogs! Go to katrinajohnsonlorax.tumblr.com for Kat and theresawilliamslorax.tumblr.com for Theresa. If you recognize it from the Lorax movie, I don't own it. This is for deviantart's 12 Days of Thneedmas Challenge. However, I'm only doing two.

                                        * * *

"You're serious?!" Theresa Williams exclaimed to her grandfather as she stirred the batter with a wooden spoon.

"Yes, your great-grandmother gave me a lump of coal for Christmas," The Once-ler explained. "She always told me that Santa thought I was a naughty boy all year."

Theresa and Once-ler laughed. "I'm sorry, Grandpa," she said apologetically while still laughing. "That's not funny."

"It's all right," Once-ler told her smiling. "When you get older, even the gloomy parts of your life start to look good."

Theresa and Once-ler were in the kitchen, a room with white walls and a wooden tile floor. A counter leaned on the left wall, with an island counter in the middle of the room. The counter had a kitchen sink with a coffee machine, olive oil and salt and pepper shakers on top of it while the counter to the right of the sink had a roll of paper towels on top with cabinets and a dishwasher below it. On top of the island counter was a bag of flour, a box of baking soda, a container of margarine, a bag of confectioner's sugar, two bottles of extract (one almond and one vanilla), a bottle of cream tartar and a carton of eggs with one missing. Along with those items was a dirty case of measuring spoons and dirty measuring cups. A large white bowl also rested on the island counter with sugar, margarine, an egg yolk, vanilla extract, and almond extract that Theresa was mixing together with a whisk. A small wooden table rested in the left corner near the bay window surrounded by wooden chairs with a circular black rug underneath. A glass door showed the green backyard with gardens full of daisies, roses and other beautiful flowers.

"So, you never got anything for Christmas?" Theresa asked Once-ler as she continued mixing the ingredients, wearing a light pink apron with dark pink spots and outlined with dark pink frillings (a gift from Once-ler) over her tight black shirt, black skinny jeans and black combat boots.

"Well, your great-grandfather would remember to get me something," Once-ler said as he scooped flour into a measuring cup. "So did your grandmother." Theresa moved out of the way as Once-ler added flour to the dough. "When we were little, she tried her hand at baking Christmas cookies."

Theresa laughed. "Grandma tried to bake cookies?" Theresa said in disbelief leaning back on the counter with the palms of her hands resting on it. "How did that turn out?"

"In a word, awful," Once-ler said, putting baking soda in the bowl and grimacing.

"Oh, this I've got to hear," Theresa said snickering.

                                        * * *

A little girl was building a snowman with a little boy. The little girl had shoulder-length chocolate brown hair with natural loose waves, a heart shaped face with almond shaped ocean blue eyes and wore a white shirt with pink dress overalls over it, white pantyhose and a zipped up red coat with black boots. The little boy had thick messy jet-black hair, round pale blue eyes and a round face, wearing a long baggy white cotton sleeve shirt, a pair of jeans that were far too big for him, a blue coat with holes and a ratty pair of boots.

"Did you write your letter to Santa?" the little girl asked joyfully as they rolled the giant white ball.

"No, I didn't see the point," the little boy said crestfallen.

The little girl stopped. "Why not?!" she asked.

"Kat, all I get from Santa is a lump of coal," the little boy told her as Kat went back to rolling the snow. "What's the point?"

"Maybe Santa realizes that you've been good this year, Once-ler," Kat told him optimistically.

Once-ler scoffed. "That's what I thought last year. Then my brothers get gifts and I get coal again," Once-ler said sardonically. "What's the point?"

"Even if Santa doesn't give you any gifts, your daddy always does," Kat said, trying to cheer Once-ler up. "And I never forget my betrothed on Christmas."

"Yeah, and one day, we'll get married!" Once-ler said, cheering up. "I'll be a big time rock star!"

"And I'll be your glamorous movie star wife!" Kat exclaimed while continuing to roll the giant snowball with Once-ler. "Who still manages to keep the house clean and gets dinner on the table right before her husband comes home!"

                                        * * *

"Whoa, time out!" Theresa interrupted in disbelief. "My badass, revolutionary, refused to wear a bra grandma was aspiring to be a June Cleaver knock off?"

Once-ler's eyebrows narrowed as he added the cream of tartar. "And a movie star. Pay attention!"

"Still, my grandma wanting to be a happy homemaker?" Theresa said scoffing. "It's a funny image."

"This was before she discovered women's lib," Once-ler said as he stirred the ingredients together with a whisk. "Do you wanna hear the rest of the story, or would you rather scoff at 1960s values?"

"All right, keep going."

                                         * * *

"Mommy, is it all right if I tell Once-ler that Santa isn't real?" Kat asked her mother, Sarah, as she was peeling the potatoes on a small white board.

"No, absolutely not!" Sarah said firmly.

"But you told me!" Kat whined.

"I only told you that because I didn't want to lie and manipulate you into being good," Sarah explained. "Isabella wants Once-ler to believe in Santa and that's what he's going to believe."

The kitchen was surrounded yellow walls and a matching yellow floor. A brown counter lined the walls with white drawers underneath. A white refrigerator with a built in freezer compartment was on the left of the counter and white cabinets were directly about it. A white stove atop of an oven was to the right of the counter and a sink was built in the very middle. In the middle of the kitchen was a yellow table surrounded by green chairs with a red coat hanging off one of them.

Sarah Johnson was a slightly plump woman with a round face, emerald green eyes and thin dishwater blonde hair that stopped at her shoulders. She wore a light blue dress with white flat pumps and a white apron. Sarah put the potatoes in a medium sized saucepan and put it under the faucet.

"But she's always giving Brett and Chet gifts while giving Once-ler a lump of coal!" Kat whined. "He thinks Santa hates him!"

"Kat, telling Once-ler that it's his mother that hates him isn't going to cheer him up," Sarah said, watching the cold water fill up the pan. "If anything, that'll just make him feel worse."

Kat crossed her arms over her chest. "But there has to be something I can do to cheer him up," Kat said as she looked around the kitchen and saw a canister of sugar. "That's it, I'll make him Christmas cookies! That'll cheer him up and show him what a good wife I'll be!"

Sarah laughed. "Tell you what, we'll get started on that after I finish dinner," she said as she put the saucepan on the stove and turned it on. "In the meantime, you can go wash up."

"I can't," Kat moaned as she took a seat on a chair. "I feel so worn out from playing in the snow."

"Really, because you seemed pretty energetic a minute ago," Sarah told her sarcastically.

"It comes and it goes," Kat said in an exaggerated worn out voice.

"Then I guess you don't have any energy to make cookies tonight," Sarah said as she looked at the chicken in the oven.

Kat quickly removed herself from her chair. "I'll get ready!"

                                        * * *

"What do you think, Mommy?!" Kat exclaimed as they put the Christmas cookies Kat made in a tuber ware bowl . They were shaped like reindeer, Christmas trees and decorations with different colored frosting on each one.

"Well," Sarah hesitated, looking at some cookies that were burned to a crisp and others looked like a pile of dough covered in frosting. "I think I need to use the bathroom."

Sarah left and a skinny young preteen girl entered the kitchen a few seconds later.

"Hi, little sister!" Tanya said with that same fake glee that reminded Kat of Isabella.

Tanya ran her fingers through her shoulder-length raven black hair that was a perfect contrast to her pale complexion. Her thin pink lips on her heart shaped face was formed into a smile while her almond shaped ocean blue eyes scanned the room as it fell on the bowl of cookies.

"Kitty, you were picking up garbage today," Tanya happily told her as she ran her hands over her white sweater and long brown flowing skirt complete with white pantyhose and black sandals. "That's so sweet of you to help out."

"They're cookies," Kat told her, narrowing her eyes and pressing her lips together. "And don't call me Kitty!"

"Really?" Tanya said in disbelief. "Thank you, Kat, but I'm not in the mood for sweet."

"They're not for you," Kat said proudly as she put her hands on her hips. "They're for Once-ler."

Tanya's face fell. "Oh, well I hope he loves them," Tanya told Kat.

"What do you mean, 'you hope?'" Kat asked, letting her hands fall to her side.

"Well, if he hates them, you have to break up," Tanya explained and turned to leave the kitchen. Kat ran in front of her.

"What do you mean, 'we have to break up?!'" Kat asked, the panic evident in her voice.

Tanya lowered her head and looked into Kat's eyes. "No boy wants a girl that can't cook," Tanya explained to her sympathetically.

"So, if Once-ler doesn't like my cooking, he won't want me anymore?" Kat said as tears formed in her eyes.

Tanya put her hand on Kat's shoulder and gave her a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry, Kitty. If Once-ler truly loves you, he'll love your cooking too."

                                       * * *

"Okay, hold up," Theresa interrupted as she removed aluminum foil from the cabinet.

"You're beginning to sound like Ted," Once-ler said annoyed.

Theresa practically threw the box of aluminum foil on the counter. "Don't go there," she said angrily.

Once-ler cleared his throat. "So, what do you have to say now?" he asked.

Theresa covered the bowl of dough with aluminum foil. "How could you possibly know any of this? You weren't even there," Theresa told him.

Once-ler put his hands on his hips and raised an eyebrow. "Your grandma told me, how do you think?" he said sarcastically.

"So, my great grandma and my great aunt were both manipulative bitches," Theresa remarked as she put the bowl in the fridge. "No wonder you guys got together."

Once-ler set the timer on the oven for two hours. "So, want to hear the rest of the story?" he asked.

"Only if we can make strawberry flavored chocolate coated fudge," Theresa said smiling as she took The Missing Golden Ticket and other Splendiferous Secrets and opened the book to page where she bookmarked the recipe.

                                        * * *

"Here you go, Once-ler!" Kat said gleefully as she put the cookies on the kitchen table. "Christmas cookies made by your betrothed!"

"Thank you!" Once-ler said as he looked at the mess that was supposed to be cookies. "How about I take them home and eat them later?"

Kat's face fell. "I was hoping you'd at least try one right now and let me know what you think," Kat told him.

Kat took the seat across from Once-ler at the table and looked at him hopefully. Once-ler took a cookie that looked passable and nibbled on it. It felt more like eating nuclear waste and it took Once-ler incredible willpower to force the disgusting thing down his throat.

"You don't like it?" Kat asked, her voice breaking and eyes watering.

"No, I love it!" Once-ler lied, laughing. "In fact, I'm going to take the rest home for later!"

"Liar!" Kat practically screamed as tears rolled down her eyes. "If you loved my cookies, you would've gobbled them all up!"

Kat covered her face in her hands and sobbed.

"Okay, so your cooking's not great," Once-ler said reassuringly. "It's not a big deal."

"Y-y-yes it is!" Kat said between sobs. "I-it m-means we have to b-break u-u-up!"

"What?!" Once-ler exclaimed, feeling tears form in his eyes. "I don't want to break up!"

"T-T-Tanya said that no b-boy wants a g-g-girl who can't cook!" Kat explained. "W-we have to break up because y-y-you don't want me a-anymore!"

"Yes I do!" Once-ler told her hastily, feeling a tear roll down his cheek. "I don't care if you can't cook!"

Kat lifted her head up and sniffed. "Really?" she asked hopefully.

"Really," Once-ler reassured her. "I can handle that!"

"But you're a boy!" Kat said, her voice clearing up. "Won't people think we're weird?"

"I don't care!" Once-ler exclaimed. "I'd rather be weird with you than normal with anyone else!"

Kat grabbed his hand. "Thank you, Once!" she exclaimed. "I love you so much!"

"I love you too, Kat!"

                                        * * *

"That was sweet," Theresa said as she lined a cooking pan with buttered wax paper. "And also cheesy."

"We were a couple of seven year olds dreaming of the future," Once-ler said, putting butter, evaporated milk, sugar, and chocolate into a large saucepan. "How did you think it would go?"

Theresa grabbed the saucepan and placed it on the stove. "Just so you know, it's not unusual for the husband to do the domestic work instead of the wife," Theresa remarked as she turned on the stove to a low heat. "If the man's better at it, then it's only fair that he do it."

"May I remind you of the time period your grandmother and I grew up in?" Once-ler told her sarcastically.

"Right, when you and grandma were kids, men got out of the house and followed their dreams while women stayed at home all day to do the cooking and cleaning, and drank wine like crazy to forget about their shattered broken dreams," Theresa said sardonically while keeping an eye on the saucepan to see if the sugar dissolved. "Was I close?"

"Disturbingly, yes."

"Grandpa, the sugar's dissolved," Theresa informed him. "Could you get the sugar thermometer?"

"Sure," Once-ler said as he removed it from the drawers and handed it to Theresa. "So, we've baked s'mores, brownies and now we're baking Christmas cookies and strawberry flavored chocolate coated fudge. Do you think this will be enough for tomorrow?"

"More than enough," Theresa said as she stirred the mixture with a wooden spoon in one hand and used her other hand to check the temperature with her thermometer. "Thanks for coming over, Grandpa."

"You said you wanted some treats for Christmas morning," Once-ler told her smiling. "How could I refuse?"

Theresa stirred the mixture as Once-ler's words stabbed her like a knife.

                                        * * *

A/N: Why would Once-ler's words get to Theresa? Find out in the next chapter! Oh, and The Missing Golden Ticket and other Splendiferous Secrets is an actual book and there is a recipe for strawberry flavored chocolate coated fudge in there. Lately, I've been in a Willy Wonka mood, so I've had to make at least one reference to it.