Early Christmas morning Rory woke up at five o'clock. She laid in bed and watched the minutes tick by until it was six. She had promised her mom and dad she would let them sleep in til six. Finally at six she crawled out of the bed and walked upstairs to her parent's room.

"Mom! Dad!" she whispered crawling onto the bed.

Lorelai rolled over and opened her eyes. "What?"

Rory grinned big. "It's time to open presents! Come on!" Rory jumped off the bed and hurried downstairs and sorted out the presents.

Lorelai nudged Luke still asleep next to her. "Luke, Rory wants to open presents now." She crawled out of bed and pulled on her robe.

Luke opened his eyes and rubbed them. "What?"

"Rory's ready to open presents," she repeated.

"Oh," said Luke. Then he got up and the two of them headed downstairs to a waiting Rory.

"Finally! What took you two so long? said Rory. "I got all the presents sorted out."

For the next hour they opened presents with Rory going first. She loved everything she got. She got some clothes and new books and Luke had to take her outside to the garage to show her the bookcase he had been working on for the past few weeks. Lorelai went next. She loved the necklace that Luke had gotten her and was surprised to see that Rory had gotten her the matching pair of earrings. Luke was last. When he opened up the scrapbook from Lorelai he got tears in his eyes.

"Lorelai, this is beautiful," he said. He flipped through the pages marveling at the baby that had been Rory.

Lorelai grinned. "Really?" She bit her lip. "I had a hard time deciding. I mean how was I going to top Rory's gift?" She was teasing him.

Luke smiled at Lorelai. "Of course. This is one of the best gifts I could have gotten." He looked at Rory. "Don't worry, I think yours is also the best." He continued flipping pages looking at pictures of Rory through the years. "What made you decide to do this?"

Lorelai launched into the story. "And I figured since I have multiples of every picture of Rory growing up I could make you a scrapbook," she finished. "It only took a few hours. Of course it was hard deciding which pictures to put in there." She pointed to the box the scrapbook had been in. "I also wrote a letter that goes along with it."

Luke sat the book down and fished through the box until he found the letter. He opened it and read it. When he had finished he had tears in his eyes. He looked from Lorelai to Rory and back again. "I know I say this a lot, but I'm sorry." He wiped the tears from his cheeks. "If I had had a choice I would have been there every second."

Rory went to him. "Dad, it's okay. I know you didn't have a choice and it's not your fault. Actually it's no one's fault." She wrapped her arms around her father. "I"m just glad you're here now."

Luke hugged her back. "Thanks." He cleared his throat. "How 'bout I make us some pancakes?"

"Chocolate chip?" asked Rory

"Of course," said Luke.

"With syrup and whipped cream?" asked Lorelai hopefully.

"That'll rot your teeth out," growled Luke. But then she gave him her puppy dog pout. "Okay fine, but I'm adding some strawberries."

"But it's December. How can you have strawberries?"

Luke shrugged. "I just have a good fruit and vegetable supplier that's all." He went to the kitchen and gathered everything he needed.

"Who?" Lorelai sat down in a chair and hugged her knees to her chest.

"His name is Jackson Belleville."

"Well, do you think I could hire him? Or that Mia could? Our last produce supplier quit and now we've been buying from Doose's."

"Uh, yeah, sure. He actually lives here in town and has his own greenhouses." Luke made the batter. He made some pancakes for himself without the chocolate chips. Rory came in and asked if she could help.

Rory helped stir in the chocolate chips and Luke told her how to put onto the frying pan and when to turn the pancakes over. A few minutes later the pancakes and coffe were ready. Well Lorelai drank the coffee while Rory and Luke drank orange juice. After breakfast all three of them got ready for their day. Later that afternoon they headed over to Will and Kelly's and celebrated Christmas with them. After opening more gifts the five of them sat around the dining room table and had lunch.

"So, Lorelai, I'm sure you're ready for June to get here now," said Kelly.

Lorelai took a sip of her water. "Yes, I am. But Luke and I still need to find a photographer." Lorelai took a bite of her food and chewed. The other week Rachel had declined on the job. She had called Lorelai and told her that because she still had strong feelings for Luke she couldn't photograph the wedding. "And we have our cake picked out. But Sookie wants us to start coming in for tastings a few weeks before the wedding."

Luke nodded. "Yeah, she's the assistant chef and she wants to do the whole wedding for free."

"What flavor is the cake?" asked Will. Will was going to Luke's best man in the wedding and the two of them needed to go shopping for their tuxes.

"It's going to be chocolate," answered Lorelai.

"Chocolate?" asked Kelly.

Lorelai nodded. "Yep. I made Luke go for the chocolate." Lorelai grinned. "My mom won't approve but she'll just have to deal."

Something that Lorelai had said earlier registered with Kelly. She looked from her son to Lorelai and back again. "Wait, you don't have a photographer? You need to go ahead and get one so you can get your bridal portraits done. Besides we'll need a picture of you in your dress to run in the paper the week you two get married announcing your marriage. You know you could ask Rachel."

"She said no, Mom," answered Luke. "I asked her a few weeks ago and she thought about it and said no."

Kelly contemplated that. She understood what would make Rachel say no instead of yes. But had she made the right decision. It put Luke and Lorelai in a tough spot. Even though Luke had plenty of money saved up he had told her and Will that he wanted to save that money to either buy a bigger house one day down the road or build a house. And Lorelai barely had enough money. She had enough to pay bills and buy groceries and that was about it. "Well, if you two end up going with one of Emily's photographers, your father and I will be glad to pay for it." She held up a hand when she saw Luke about to protest. "Luke, you and Lorelai are trying to save money to one day get a bigger house. The least your dad and I can do is help out with the wedding by paying for some things. We have plenty of money. Probably not as much as Emily and Richard but we get by well." She looked from Luke and Lorelai. "Just think about it."

Luke nodded. "Okay, we'll think about it and let you know what we've decided." He looked at Lorelai. "When do your parents get back?"

"Um, after New Year's I believe. Mom and I have another meeting on the fifth. They get back on the third." Lorelai looked at Will and Kelly. "I'll talk to Mom about the photographers she can get us and Luke and I will let you know."

"That sounds good," said Kelly.

"Yeah," said Will, pitching in. "We don't mind helping out just a little bit. We know that wedding can be expensive even when you have a budget."

So it was settled. As soon as Lorelai could talk to her mother in a week and a half she would ask about the best photographers. Lorelai decided she wanted to go for the one that was the best but at the same time not too expensive. How hard could it be to find the best photographer for a cheap price? Lorelai would soon find out.