Finding unusual things in the Trancy Manor was nothing new. The triplets had long ago stopped questioning when strange objects appeared, seemingly overnight. This habit was broken one Christmas season when they walked into the banquet hall only to find a small but ornate house made entirely out of cookie sitting on the table. None of them could understand the use of such a thing, and thought it best to investigate. As they peered into every delicate sugar window and opened the gingerbread door, they found not a soul residing in the cookie house. They exchanged glances, and all agreed. If people lived in houses, then tiny cookie people had to live in tiny cookie houses. There were no tiny, delicious people in this house. That meant that they were somewhere in the manor, probably leaving a trail of chaos and cookie crumbs. The triplets knew exactly what they had to do, and quickly began their preparations to capture the scrumptious little men.

They began their search in the banquet hall, but were quickly discovered by Claude. He'd noticed that nothing had been done around the manor for a long while, and had gone to investigate. They explained to him with a series of glances and gestures about their hunt for the cookie men. He sighed heavily, brought the three to the kitchen, and gestured to Timber's baking schedule. 'Gingerbread Men" was printed neatly at the top of the list. Claude then explained that Alois had declared he wanted a gingerbread house, which he had already prepared. He did not have time for the other cookies, as today was December twenty-first, and there was just too much to be done. That meant that the job would be passed on to the cook.

"And in conclusion, the gingerbread men are not sentient. Do you understand?"

The three nodded, and were ushered off to do something more productive then search for conscious gingerbread men.