Rory enters the campaign bus and sits on her window seat on the back of the bus, as her mom had instructed her to do when she first parted for work on the trail. It was their first day back after the holiday break, and everyone was excited.

- Hey Rory, how was your Christmas? – asks David, as he turns back to talk to her.

- You went back home? – Carol questions. All of them had already heard Rory talk about the small town where she grew up and were curious about that mad and somewhat magical place.

- Oh, it was great – Rory replies, a big smile on her face as she thinks back on Stars Hollow, herself, her mom, Luke, and April drinking eggnog and eating red and green M&M's on their cereal – the look on her stepfather's face was priceless. – I did, it was the first time we got our family reunited since the wedding - you know, me, and Mom, and Luke, and my stepsister and my grandparents. And about you guys?

They all start talking about what they all had done on their break, about Christmas traditions and New Year's resolutions. Once the conversation died, they all sit back on their spots, and go back to their habitual activities – some would read, others would talk with their neighbors, listen to music or write something.

Rory looks out of the window for a while, her mind still on Stars Hollow. She's never seen Lorelai happier. After all that her mom and Luke had gone through the year before, it was comforting to see them together. She always thought there was something between them, even when none of them would acknowledge it – for themselves or others.

She picks up the book she tried to start again back home but didn't even have the time to do it. She must have been re-reading Anna Karenina at least twice every year since she first read it. The (belated) Christmas picture of their family is there right on the first page, being used as a bookmark.

Lorelai had bought matching Christmas sweaters for all of them, and Rory smiles as she thinks about Lorelai and Luke discussing how he wouldn't use a matching sweater and a Santa hat – spoiler alert, he did, even though he refused to wear them for the picture.

She finally starts the first line of the book: "All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way". Again, she looks at the picture above the line, glad she got a happy one, one that she really loves and already misses, and her smile grows big as she relives the moments of the past couple of weeks.


Everything was new and exciting at the campaigning trail, and it was with a certain amount of sorrow that Rory said farewell to her colleagues and new friends as she departed to spend the holidays with her family. But she missed her town, her best friend, and mostly her mom, and was really anxious to spend the first Christmas with also Luke and April, now officially her stepfather and stepsister.

She had called her mom the day before, and Lorelai had informed her that April wouldn't be in Stars Hollow for Christmas because her mother wouldn't allow – after all, it was her turn to spend this time of year with her daughter – but Anna had concurred that April could go to spend New Year with them.

- So you know what that means, right? – Lorelai asked her daughter, excitedly.

- We're having two Christmas this year – Rory replied.

- Yes! I already bought her a stocking and a sweater to match ours, and one for Luke.

- I can't see Luke wearing Christmas sweaters, mom.

- Oh, leave that with me. So, what time are you arriving?

- I guess I'll be home around five.

- I smell snow – Lorelai says after one moment. – So, tomorrow?

- You, me, donuts, coffee, standing in a snowstorm at midnight?

- You're my favorite daughter.

- I'll tell that to your other daughters. Gotta go. Love you, Mom.

- Love you, kid.


Lorelai is waiting for Rory on the porch, already wearing one of her Christmas sweaters, when the girl arrives.

- You are late – Lorelai complains, as she runs to hug her daughter.

- I missed you too, Mom – Rory says, also running to hug her mother, and both of them fall on the ground. They laugh, and Rory sees Luke standing on the porch, beaming as he looks at two of his favorite girls.

They enter the house, and the smell of cookies gets to them. Lorelai explains that Luke is baking their Christmas cookies – an update on their tradition of buying them on Weston's, – but they were waiting for her to make the frosting, so she could lick the beaters.

- And drink eggnog?

- And drink eggnog.

- Your mom wouldn't allow any other Christmas traditions to be fulfilled until you arrived – Luke tells Rory.

- That's right. So, tomorrow we are tree shopping and decorating the house.

- And doing necklaces? – Rory asks, excited as if she was eight years old.

- Absolutely – Lorelai agrees, and Luke smiles at them as he shakes his head.

Rory and Lorelai help him with the cookies and do the frost, and, as expected, Rory licks the beaters. The whole place has a great atmosphere and the one thing Luke wants the most was that his own daughter could spend that first Christmas with them, especially because both Rory and Lorelai loved it so much. But he was glad that, at least, they could all spend the New Year together. To see all of his girls bonding was very important to him.

As predicted by Lorelai, the snow starts to fall close to midnight. So, Luke makes them coffee and gives them donuts, and watches them go, saying Lorelai and Rory were crazy, as they left the house under the storm to walk.


On the next day, they go to buy Christmas trees for the house – two for the living room and one for the kitchen, because they had to have a tree there. They open the boxes filled with Christmas stuff and decorate the house. Lorelai and Rory abandon their old stockings to use new ones, which match the ones Lorelai bought for April and Luke.

Even though April wasn't coming, Lorelai and Rory agreed that, as part of the family, she needed to have her own stocking and it needed to be strung up on the banister, along with theirs. The affection Rory and Lorelai have for April, despite the fact they didn't really spend time with the girl, always made Luke love his family even more if that was even possible.

- Okay – Luke says as he takes the mistletoe out of the box, – where does that go? Because, if I know the both of you, definitely not in the doorway.

The girls chuckle, and Rory is the one to answer.

- We tape it to one of the blades of the ceiling fan upstairs.

- So kissing is more like a sport? – Luke asks raising an eyebrow.

- He knows us so well – Lorelai tells Rory, who agrees laughing. – But I guess we could put one in the doorway. And some other places in the house – she approaches him and takes the mistletoe out of his hand, holding it above their heads. – Uh oh, I guess you have to kiss me now.

- Yeah? – Luke says as he pulls her close by the waist, a smirk on his face.

- It's tradition, you can't break tradition – Lorelai says seriously.

- I'm out of here – Rory says, but she is smiling as he takes a box of stuff to decorate the kitchen, at the same time Lorelai leans to kiss Luke.


Following the Gilmore Girls traditions, that Luke fulfills (almost) integrally, on Christmas Eve they left a plate with the cookies they had baked for Santa, and, when they woke up the next day, they were untouched, because 'Santa prefers gum'. Luke shakes his head once again, smiling when Rory announces that Santa hadn't eaten the cookies, biting one of them. He wasn't a fan of Christmas - or any other holidays, for that matter – but it was impossible not to be touched by Lorelai's and Rory's Christmas spirit.

Luke prepared the coffee and served two cups. When he turned to put them on the table, he saw that Rory was opening a package of M&M's.

- What are you doing?

- Putting green and red M&M's into our cereals – Lorelai answers as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

- Why do I even ask.

- It's festive.

- And delicious.

- And festive!

- And delicious!

Once they had had their breakfast, it was time to open the presents that were under the tree. As they finished opening the ones with their names on, Luke notices that there were still three presents left under the tree. He knew one of them was his gift for April – Lorelai had insisted for him to put it there, with the others. When he looks at the other two, they were both also to April – one from Lorelai and one from Rory.

- You didn't have to – he said to the girls, but Lorelai could tell by his smile he loved it.

- I know – Rory says, – but she's my stepsister now, so I thought it would be nice.

- We want her to feel welcome – Lorelai completes. – She's family.

- I… - Luke starts, but he stammers and Lorelai chuckles.

- We are the best, we know – she teases.

- You really are.

- Oh, you haven't seen anything yet – Rory giggles, drinking a sip of her coffee.


On the afternoon of Christmas day, they go to Weston's to drink their candy-cane coffee (which Luke said was undrinkable). The three of them were wearing matching Christmas sweaters, that Lorelai had somehow convinced Luke to wear – Rory didn't know how and preferred to continue ignorant on the subject.

They had put on their reindeer's antlers when they were at the house, and Lorelai had even put one of them on Luke (over his new baseball cap), but she couldn't convince neither Rory nor Luke they should wear them outside, so she was kind of pouting.

- Excuse me – she says to Rory and Luke and goes to talk to the woman on the balcony. She and Rory had talked about it and decided it was worth to try and see if the people of Weston's would save them three candy-cane coffees mixes to serve to them on New Year's Eve when April would arrive. That was an important part of their traditions, and it was important for them to share that with April.

Lorelai comes back to the table smiling and nodding, and Rory yells a "yay".

- What are you guys up to? – Luke asks.

- Nothing.

- Absolutely nothing.

- You know what, with the two of you, it's always better not knowing – Luke says, his eyebrow rose. Lorelai and Rory giggle to one another, excited about what's to come the next week.