The snow fell without clouds. It looked like the very stars were falling out of the sky and fluttering softly onto the ground. Danny and Sam walked the three blocks from their house to the house of Jack and Maddie Fenton. Danny carried the various presents they had made and bought for their family. Sam held the more precious cargo: their only child. Little green eyes sparkled like emeralds in fascination as little pink lips breathed out white vapor.

"Daddy," said the owner of the lips and eyes, "how come I can see my breath if there isn't a ghost anywhere?"

Danny and Sam laughed at this, adoring their daughter's innocent curiosity. Danny moved his head in order to get a glimpse of the little girl through the many packages.

"Well sweetie, remember when I told you about vapor and condensation?"

She nodded her head, a few strands of raven hair shook out from under her hat.

"Well because your breath is warmer than the air outside, the moisture becomes a vapor you can see."

The little girl contemplated this new fact.

"Does that mean when I sense a ghost, my breath becomes colder than the air or does the ghost make the air colder?"

Sam and Danny looked at each other perplexed, they never thought of that before.

"How about we save that question for Grandma and Grandpa Fenton, sweetie." Danny concluded.

"Okay Daddy." she smiled, brightening the air with her ethereal glow.

"Maybe they'll be so obsessed with the question that they'll forget about the fight." Sam added amusingly.

Danny smirked as he recollected many a Christmas he had spent with his parents constantly fighting over the existence of Santa Clause. He had hated it as a child, but he has come to accept it as a Christmas tradition as he got older. It soon became something he easily ignored, and it helped that they started doing it a little less once their grandchild were born.

They arrived at the door of his childhood home. The little girl's hands reached out from her mother's arms to ring the doorbell. When she found she couldn't quite reach it, Sam leaned over so the little white fingers could press the button through the thick green mittens. Immediately the door was opened with Jack and Maddie on the other side.

"Danny, Sam," greeted the two older ghost hunters, "Merry Christmas."

"Grandma, Grandpa!" cried their excited granddaughter as she reached out to hug them. She phased through her mother's arms and clung to Jack and Maddie in the middle of the air.

"Hey there, little Ophelia," replied Maddie in the middle of the embrace.

"Hey there kiddo," replied Jack as she floated back down. He ruffled her head, causing her hat to fall off and her long black hair to fall past her shoulders. "How's it been?"

"Good, we had this holiday party in preschool and I got a new dress from Grandma Manson for the sixth night of Hanukah. Is Aunt Jazz here yet?"

"Sorry sweetie," answered Maddie "but they won't be here until tomorrow."

"Neither will Valerie, Tucker, or Francis." added in Jack.

"And Dani isn't coming until tomorrow neither." Ophelia concluded with a gleeful smile, "That means we have you all to ourselves."

They smiled back. They all soon entered the house and warm themselves by the fireplace and tree. Danny dumped his heavy load by the tree. As he and Sam arranged them, Ophelia's eyes glittered with the shiny wrapping paper of the mountain of gifts, as any child's would.

"Make sure to leave enough room under the tree for Santa." Jack said to them.

Danny and Sam rolled their eyes as they saw Maddie gear up for their annual quarrel. Ophelia, having spent only three half-remembered Christmases at the Fenton house, was completely oblivious to it.

"You mean you should save room for the presents the others will bring." Maddie said.

"Others including Santa."

"How many time do I have to tell you, he does not exist!"

"And how many times do I have to tell you, he does!"

"What proof do you have that he does exist?"

"What proof do you have that he doesn't?"

"Jack, there are about two billion children around the world. How is a man of his physique and age suppose to deliver presents for every child I one night?"

"Not all children celebrate Christmas, so you can cut that down to about 500 million children. Then there are the children who have been bad and don't get presents, then there are only 300 million. And then there are the differing time zones, so one night can stretch out to about a day and a half."

Sam leaned into her husband.

"I always thought it was interesting how your dad can be so bad over at statistics and approximations for every month of the year except December."

Danny smiled.

"Yeah, well he's had a lot of years and determination to crunch the numbers."

"Still, that is near impossible Jack. He would still to drive at incredibly fast speeds to get it all done in that window of time. He'd burn up from the friction. And how would he acquire flying reindeer and a sleigh in the first place?"

"Magic reindeer, magic sleigh. He got them when he got the magic that makes him live for so long."

"Do you realize how childish you sound right now?"

Ophelia was enmeshed in their argument when she realized she had heard this before and remembered how they up took most of last year's Christmas Eve over the same argument to no end. She then decided to change the subject.

"Grandma, Grandpa?" she said to interrupt their argument.

"Yes Ophelia?" they both answered.

"Outside in the snow I saw my breath and there wasn't a ghost a round. Daddy said it was because my breath was warmer then the air and made vapor. I asked how we can see our breath when a ghost is around and Daddy said to ask you. So I'm asking you: how can I see my breath when a ghost is around if it's not cold?"

The two ghost hunters looked at each other. Strange how they never wondered about that before. Curious, they decided to go down to the their lab in the basement to find out for themselves.
When they asked Danny to come down for a few samples, Ophelia and Sam were left alone upstairs. Sam held her daughter as she sat on her lap.

"Mommy, why doesn't Santa give presents to kids who don't celebrate Christmas?"

Sam smiled while trying to come up with a good answer.

"Because some winter holidays don't involve exchanging gifts, and it would be weird if Father Christmas squeezed through your chimney and gave you a doll."

"But we exchange gifts for Hanukah, why doesn't he do it for us?"

"Because it's tough for him to do this stuff in one night, imagine trying to give presents to two billion children in the world for eight nights. And that's if he's lucky enough for the two holidays to fall into the same days."

"And Santa can't split himself like Daddy can?"

"No, Santa is not a ghost, or at least not that we know of. Either way, he can't split himself."

"Oh, then if he's real he really deserve all those milk and cookies."

Sam looked at his daughter curiously.

"Do you think Santa is real?"

Ophelia looked up at her mother with a confused expression.

"Isn't he in the box, Mommy?"

"What box?"

"There was this teacher in one of Aunt Jazz's universities talking about a guy who put his cat in this box."

"Schrödinger's Cat?"

"Mm-Hm, it said that since nobody opened the box the cat was both dead and alive at the same time. If the box can make the cat alive and dead at the same time, then maybe it makes Santa real and not real when he's in there. Is that true, Mommy?"

Sam smiled and held her daughter tighter. She kissed Ophelia on the forehead.

"Yes, yes it is."

The three Fentons finally returned to the living room from their little escapade. Maddie was removing her trademark suit cap and goggles, wiping away the well-earned sweat from her brow.

"We're back," She announced, "And we found out how the ghost sense works. When you sense a ghost, your ice core releases a small amount of cryokinetic energy that lowers your body temperature. This somehow alters the amount of humidity you release in your breath. So when you release a breath of air while sensing a ghost, the cold moisture of your breath mixed with the warmer air of your surroundings mixes and results in the blue wisp of vapor."

Ophelia blinked her glittering eyes in the kind of awe only a child as young as her could have.

"Cooooool" she said in that same awe.

"Jack, Maddie," Sam addressed, " you should hear Ophelia's theory about Santa. It's quite interesting."

They perked up at the words.

"And what would that be?" Maddie asked skeptically.

"She says that Santa Clause is a Schrödinger's Cat. Because we don't have anything to prove or disprove his existence, he's still in the box."

Both Maddie and Jack were taken back at the though of their four year old granddaughter not only knowing but understanding a concept like Schrödinger's Cat.

"How does she know about Schrödinger's Cat?" Jack asked, "That's an analogy for quantum physics."

"She overheard a lecture when she was in one of Jazz's university. I think it is a great compromise for this annual argument. Because neither of us can prove or disprove that Santa is real, he is both real and not real. So you guys can both agree with each other and disagree with each other, or at least agree to disagree."

Danny looked at Sam and Ophelia and then at his parents.

"We couldn't have this big epiphany moment back when I was a kid?"


After they had their dinner, Danny and Sam decided to let Ophelia open one present tonight for being a good little girl and the only child in the house.

"I know just the gift." Maddie declared and she ran downstairs to the basement. After a few minutes, she came back up with a little blue box in black ribbon, the same color as her trademark hazmat suit. She handed the box to Ophelia, who looked at them with big curious eyes. She held the box to her ear as she shook it. She smiled gleefully, as if she already knew what it was.

"Go on, sweetie," Maddie encouraged. "Open it."

With small hesitance, Ophelia tugged on the black ribbon until it bell from the box. She opened the lid and took out its contents. It was a pair of hazmat goggles with red lenses.

"I wanted her to have a little bit of Grandma Fenton she can carry around," Maddie said to Danny and Sam, "and I thought a locket or doll just wasn't enough of me for her."

Ophelia inspected the goggles and looked through the red lenses. Sam looked down at the girl sitting in her lap and then up at Maddie.

"Are you sure about this? These are your favorite goggles, I have never seen you without them in my life."

"Nor have I." Danny added

"She's very small, and runs around a lot. She might break them."

"Nonesense," Maddie said as she noticed that Ophelia was having a hard time putting them on. She took them out of her hands and adjusted the straps. "These are made to protect the wearer from exposure to the harshest ghostly energy. It can withstand ghost attacks, paranormal experiments, and most of all any invention Jack can cook up."

The three adults giggled at his expense.

"Hey" he protested jovially.

Maddie ignored him and drew her attention back to Ophelia.

"Now Ophelia, I've had these goggles ever since I studied paranormal sciences in Wisconsin University. I wore them when I met your grandfather and at on my wedding day. I wore them even when your aunt and your father were born. They were with me when I made my biggest scientific breakthroughs. Now I'm giving them to you, in hopes that you will have as much success with them as I have."

She put the goggles on. They were much bigger than her, cover half her face. She only blinked twice through the red lenses before they fell off her face and dangled from her neck. Danny and Sam both laughed.

"Maybe when she grows into them," Sam said. She looked down at Ophelia. "What do you say, honey? "

"Thank you, Grandma Maddie." Ophelia said in a sweet yet rehearsed tone, as all children her age had.


Games were played and stories were told. Eventually Ophelia's eyes drooped and she started to fall asleep on the couch.

"Time to put her to bed." Sam announced as she picked up the small child and carried her to the stairs.

The three Fentons said their goodnights and looked on as Ophelia drowsily waved back before she and Sam disappeared up the staircase.

"It's hard to believe she exists," Jack said "it seems like only yesterday that you and Jazz were that small. Now look at you: full grown, fully responsible adults with kids of your own."

Danny smiled, his eyes still glued to the top step.

"Yeah, I bet you never pictured me growing up to be like this way back when."

"Honestly, I doubt anyone would picture their children receiving superhuman powers under their roof and become the savior of two worlds." Maddie joked.

"But parents do dream to have a child like Ophelia, you and Sam are truly blessed to have her."

"Yeah, yeah we are."

Just then, a knock came on the door. Sensing no ghostly threat, Danny answered it. Tucker was with another man dressed in the fashion of a government agent. Both men looked nervous, Tucker more than the other man.

"Hey Tuck, what's wrong?"

"Where's Sam? We need to get going now."

"Tucker what's wrong? What's going on?"

"Remember that surveillance equipment your station put into the satellites last month? Well, it picked up something heading to Earth."

"What like some meteorites or something?"

"Worse, it had a human heat signature and an ectoplasmic signature."

All the blood drained out of Danny's face.

"Sam? Sam! We have to get going, now! Mom, Dad, can you watch over Ophelia until we get back?"

"Sure son, but what's the matter?" asked Jack.

Danny hardly heard his father calling him. Instead of answering, he went straight to the rack by the door and hastily put on his coat and scarf.

"Fourteen years," he absentmindedly rambled to himself, "Fourteen years and he decides now to show his ugly face again? Sam!"

"Okay, okay, Danny I'm here." Sam said as she rushed down the stairs. "If you keep yelling, you'll wake Ophelia up. Hey Tucker-"

She was cut off when Danny threw her coat at her.

"Come on, Sam, we have to get going. There's no time to lose, he could be anywhere right now."

Sam pulled the coat off her head, showing the deep concern on her face. She placed a hand on Danny's shoulder, getting him to stop for a moment and look at her.

"Danny, what's wrong? Calm down and tell me what's going on."

There in Danny's eyes she saw something she hadn't seen in a long time. That fear, worry and determination she had only seen back when they were in high school, when he had his arh-nemisis threatening his life.

"He's back Sam, Vlad Plasmius is back."