On the way home from the mall, my Pixie finds the discs I found the night before actually to be great entertainment. Watching the still icy road with Barbie's Christmas carols playing and a constantly giggling girl in the back seat is not an easy job.

She jumps out of the car as soon as we've reached our final destination, the garage, to show Mommy her new dress – wow, Mommy will be mad, but hopefully not very long . I circle Rory's SUV. And right there, at the rear end of the passenger's side, I spot it: the scratch. It is not a very big one but it sure got me into some trouble last night. Funny, she scratches her car and I get in trouble.

Again I have to think about Finn's implication. Did she plan on getting pregnant? But why would she not tell me?
It's a vicious circle. I plan on asking her about it. Later.

A glance at my watch tells me it's already 2:30. Lunch with Finn and the unplanned Christmas shopping for Baby Huntzberger took longer that I had planned. After grabbing the gift box from the boutique and another couple of bags from my trunk, I quickly lock the car and enter the house through the side door, closing the door that Lailie left open.

"I thought you got lost in the snow again! Hey, Honey!"

Rory is sitting at the breakfast counter, labeling various gifts for Lorelai, Luke, her siblings, and the Grumpys.

When Lailie started calling her great-grandmother 'Grammy' and Richard 'Grampy', I somehow turned it into 'the Grumpys' whenever Rory and I would talk about her grandparents. She thought it was funny but threatened to kill or even castrate me if she ever heard Lailie refer to her great-grandparents as 'the Grumpys'.

"No, Ace, not this time. But I intend to get lost before we get to your grandparent's house tonight."

She rolls her eyes.
"Please not again! It didn't work last year and I had to talk her out of sending us a car to pick us up this year. Plus…" She looks up and seems to be rather mad… wonder why…
"A cheery little girl just passed through here, showing me a lovely white and pink dress that her soon-to-be-killed father apparently bought her today to wear to the Christmas Even dinner tonight. What's your defense?"

I knew it and start smirking.

"Oh, really? It was white and pink? Could have sworn it was red and green when we left the store. Huh, how about that…"

Death glare.

"Honey… You know what I think about Emily forcing everybody to wear red and green for Christmas. Pixie loves this dress! We can just tell her that she spilled jam on the other one just before we left."

"And why would Lailie eat jam just before Christmas Eve dinner?"

"Because she was hungry."

"And why couldn't she wait?"

"Because if kids go hungry for a certain amount of time, it impacts their growth. And Emily doesn't want her to always be that small, does she?"

Rory growls, it's so cute when she can't find a suitable retort.

"Fine," she says reluctantly but smiles, "I believe she got strawberry scent soap on it when she was washing her hands just before we left."

I lean over the counter and kiss her. "I love it when you join my little plots to overthrow Emily Gilmore's regime."

She sighs again. "Now, where is my dress? I hope that one has at least some red and some green in it."

It has become tradition that whenever there is a big occasion, I get her a new dress. Of course I wasn't allowed to pick the dress she wore to the wedding that was forced upon us after Lailie's birth. Neither Rory not I liked it very much, but it didn't matter since we had already been married for 6 months when we got married for the second time. Other people wait 40 years to renew their wedding wows, we just waited half a year.

Smiling I lift up one of the bags I brought in with me.
"No, darling. Your dress will be approved of, as will my tie. I figured it hard to come up with an explanation to why you would get jam on your dress."

She laughs and takes the bag, peeking inside to get a glance at the designer.

"Oh my, Mr Huntzberger, Chanel. I'm impressed! You know what's sad?"

"What Ace?"

"I'll be too big to fit into any of my stuff in a month or two. I'll be huge and fat and ugly and I'll have to wear tents to cover up my enormous belly."

I laugh about her miserable face, knowing how she loved being pregnant the first time but hated the belly that was always in her way. This brings me back to my earlier thoughts…

"Hey Ace?"
Her 'hm' sound implies that she might be listening to me while she's still writing name tags.

"You didn't plan on getting pregnant, did you?" Ouch, wrong words, Huntzberger.

"I mean, you are as surprised as I am about it, or were you hoping to get pregnant?"

"What do you mean, Logan?" She looks a little uneasy and starts fiddling with the pen, avoiding my eyes.

"Just… If you wanted to get pregnant and stopped taking birth control or if this was really an accident that happened even though you were on the pill. You would have told me if you wanted to have another baby, if you were ready for it, right?"

She winces a little when I use the bad 'a' word that is supposed to be officially banned from any talk about babies within this family since last night. But I'm really determined to find out. When Finn mentioned the possibility earlier, I didn't believe it. But her reaction makes be think differently.

"See, Logan," she starts but get's interrupted by the phone.

"We are not finished talking about this," I state, as I go and pick up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Ah, favorite son-in-law! Merry Christmas!"

I glance over to Rory, who is still sitting on the barstool, looking nervous. I don't know if I should feel bad about this.

"Merry Christmas to you too, Lorelai!"

She looks up and moves over to me.

"Thanks! Hey… Is everything alright? You sound… tense?"

"Nah, nothing." Wow, she's good. "Pixie just accidentally spilled some strawberry scented soap over her Christmas dress and unfortunately we had to get her another one since Jackie left early today. It is such a pity that all red and green dresses were sold out…"

I wink at Rory who smiles when she hears Lorelai laughing.

"That is very sad indeed! Now, would my daughter be available or are you holding her hostage, forcing her to bake Christmas cookies from scratch?"

Chuckling about Lorelai's antics, I pass the phone to Rory and leave the slightly tense atmosphere of the kitchen to go check on Lailie.

She's sitting by the Christmas tree, carefully shaking every box.

I clear my throat, her head shoots around and she's looking at me like a deer caught in headlights. Or rather like a little girl caught in the act of sneaking around Christmas gifts.

"I… didn't… I was just… Eh… I love you Daddy!" She jumps up and hugs me around the waist.

Raising my eyebrow I look at her skeptically.
"Pixie, my Pixie. What am I supposed to do with you? You know I already talked to Santa yesterday so maybe it's too late to call him and tell him you were naughty, thus, I will let it pass this time. But you better get upstairs and change before I change my mind!"

Smiling happily, she starts skipping towards the stairs and is soon gone.

Rory sticks her head through the dining room doorway, phone still attached to one ear.

"Hey… Um, Mom asks when they should come over."

Sighing I check my watch.
"It's 3 now, I sent Pixie up to change a minute ago, I'm rather quick, you say, how much time do you need to look even more beautiful?"

I think this eliminated the uneasiness about the kitchen incident on her side since she smiles at me and tells her mom to be at our house around 4:00, knowing they won't be here until 4:30. I, however, still wonder about her strange behavior. Assuming that she, indeed, planned on getting pregnant, I still don't know why she didn't tell me.

Back in the kitchen I pick up the last bags and boxes and put them under the tree. After a last glance at the gift tag that says 'Baby Huntzberger' I go upstairs to check if Lailie is actually changing or if she got sidetracked by the playroom.