Cold December Night
Twas the night before Christmas, relatively speaking at least, and all through the TARDIS not a creature was stirring not even the Lord of Time. For despite all the superiority that he claimed in front of his human, and sometimes non-human, companions the Lord of Time did require sleep.
So it was on this cold December night that the whole of the Pond family and the Lord of Time were holding a sleepover in the console room of the type forty TARDIS (it would have been held somewhere with actual beds but the Doctor wanted the TARDIS to feel included and he felt the presence of her most clearly in the control room).
The TARDIS was humming gently touching the minds of the travelers so that there would be no nightmares tonight. The TARDIS was surprised how easily she could touch all of their thoughts. Usually she couldn't touch human minds as easily as she could her thief and her child but the Ponds were special.
Suddenly she had an idea. She could never give many gifts at Christmas but perhaps this year she could share things with her in inhabitants through their dreams.
With caution she slipped into their minds seeking permission to unify their dreaming. She knew they were wary of things in their minds and she had to make sure that they realized that it was her and not a foreign entity that wished to do them harm. There were many that wished to harm her family.
The unified dream was accepted and she sent them on an amazing adventure. Through it all they laughed and enjoyed themselves and the TARDIS in her human-like dream form did as well. She never got to be with her thief when he was out in the middle of a conflict but this was a dream that she was creating so she could do as she wished and if she left River and the Doctor alone in the dreamstate as she woke Amy and Rory and extracted herself, that was a choice that she could make.