Disclaimer: This is an original story based upon the characters of Gilmore Girls. No profit will be made from this story and no copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note: Thanks to all who read and reviewed. As always, it meant a lot to me. On the last story, I did make a mistake—I wrote that Hope would watch Rory instead of Lorelai. That's what I get for trying to write late at night. If I end up mixing up Luke and Richard tonight with their respective wives or something I will never write a story late at night again!

It seemed like fifteen minutes later that we climbed into bed and then we were awakened by a very loud, "Wake up! Wake up! It's Christmas!"

I slowly opened my eyes and glanced at the alarm clock—5:30, she wasn't kidding. I groaned and turned away from her.

"Come on!" she said, jumping on the bed. "It's Christmas!"

"Emily…" Richard moaned, "Who is that?"

"That's your daughter," I said, still keeping my eyes shut.

"I don't have a daughter," Richard moaned, "It must be your daughter,"

"No," I said. "Before 6:30 in the morning she's your daughter,"

Richard sleepily yawned, sat up and looked at Lorelai, "You are almost in your forties right?" he said with a slight tease in his voice. "I didn't just dream the last thirty years."

She smiled and put her chin in her hands, "I want to see my presents Daddy!" she said.

"Alright, Alright!" he chuckled. "We'll be right there!"

Richard leaned over and brushed a big hand across the side of my head.

"Merry Christmas Daddy," I whispered.

He leaned down and kissed me, "Merry Christmas Mommy,"

"Come on you two!" we heard our daughter call from the hall.

We chuckled and got out of bed, putting on our robes and came out the door.

"Merry Christmas Emily, Richard," Luke said, bending down to kiss me on the cheek.

"Merry Christmas," we told him back.

"Merry Christmas," Rory said sleepily as she climbed the stairs.

"Merry Christmas Rory!" we all said in unison.

"You didn't see anything did you!" Lorelai scolded, and Rory shook her head. "No Santa Claus, I didn't see anything!"

"Okay, I think I better go down and see if Santa Claus really did come," Luke said.

"Um, yes," Richard said, going down the stairs with him. "I'll help," he said and then turned back towards me with a sparkle in his eyes.

There was a lot of shuffling downstairs and some whispering and then there was a dancing array of color as the tree was turned on and the red, orange, green, and blue lights poured out color.

"Okay, you can come down," Luke called and I even let down my guard and ran giggling down the stairs with my girls to meet Christmas. It was snowing again so it was light outside, and the Christmas tree lights cast beautiful shadows all over the place. Rory sat down on the couch and started opening her pile of presents from her Santa Claus and I giggled as I saw my daughters face as she saw her present from her Santa Claus.

It was an electric train set.

Even Luke's eyes grew wide as Richard flipped on the train and it started going around and around the track.

"Wow!" Lorelai cried out running towards it. "I can't believe it!" she whispered.

It really was a beautiful train set. The train had a sleek red engine and twelve gray passenger cars that had tops you could open up and place people inside. Inside the cars had real plush velvet seats and real curtains at the windows. There were also two freight trains with little pieces of coal and packages to pack in the cars. The track was laid on a large table, and wound around an amazingly lifelike landscape. The trees looked real and the train swerved in and out through a forest, over a bridge and through a tunnel where the light shone through.

"Oh my gosh," Lorelai whispered and looked up at both of us. "I wanted one of these so bad when I was a kid, I wrote Santa Claus every year…" and then she suddenly swallowed hard and looked at us both with shining eyes. "Thank you," she whispered.

Richard put his arm around me and we stood back and watched as Luke and Lorelai looked at the different train cars, and pointed out different parts of the landscape. Suddenly watching the two of them I felt my eyes fill with tears again—they both had been through so much in the last month and it felt so good to see the fear and pressure gone and to see them have fun. Lorelai looked back at us and smiled, and we smiled back. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my heart as I thought of my daughter, my girl who had been so fiercely independent, forced to grow up at such a young age. All I had thought about, all these years was the pain that I felt, I had never really thought about the pain she had gone through without us. Sure she was glad to get away, sure she didn't want our help, but I wondered how many times she had laid awake at night, perhaps on the same nights I was crying for my her, and wanted me. I went towards her and put my hands on her shoulder. "I need to tell you something," I whispered and led her towards the hall.

"Thank you Mom," she said. "The train set is just beautiful,"

"This isn't just about the train set Lorelai," I said. "You're dad and I wanted to tell you something by getting you the train set."

"What?" she asked.

"I knew that you wanted a train set. I used to read your letters when you were little and then I stopped because I thought they were ridiculous. I thought that I knew better when it came to what to get you for Christmas, and I didn't want to get you an electric train set. They were for boys not for girls."

Lorelai smiled slightly, and I smiled back. "Seems as though I've been doing that your whole life, choosing your clothes, choosing your schools, your friends, your boyfriends and that is going to stop right now. I may not always agree with your decisions Lorelai. But I am always going to respect them because I respect you."

"Thanks Mom," Lorelai smiled. "That means a lot to me," I hugged her to me, and then we turned to look at our boys playing with the train set and we laughed.

The rest of the morning was lovely. Alicia woke up about an hour later and joined the festivities, and there was laughing and talking, and when we were done the room was full of wrapping paper. Everyone seemed to enjoy their presents from us, and I was so glad I went back the second time.

Richard had bought me a diamond heart necklace, and when I opened the sleek black velvet box and saw the necklace, I moved towards him and as our lips were starting to touch Lorelai called out, "Oh! Um…Offspring present!"

Richard turned towards her and said, "Close your eyes," and then he took my hand and as I stood up, he took me in his arms and dipped me down and kissed me. Rory laughed, and Lorelai cried out, "Oh…scarred for life now!"

Luke gave Lorelai a gold locket that had belonged to his grandmother. He knelt down beside her and took her hand. He told her how his grandmother had died when he was sixteen and how she had given him her gold locket, the locket his grandfather had given to her when she was sixteen. They had grown up together and were high school sweethearts. He had taken his knife and carved, "Soul mate," on the back of the locket. She had given it to Luke when she died and told him to give it to his soul mate.

All the girls in the room were crying then and as he pulled back her hair and fastened the locket on to her, she turned towards us and said, "Close your eyes" as she reached up and kissed him.

As I sat there in that room, my hand resting on my beloved's arm, seeing the love in my daughter's eyes, and the man who put it there, watching my two perfect grandchildren, I figured that life wasn't going to get any better than this.

"Well, Mom and Dad, are you ready for your present?" Lorelai asked. Both Richard and I looked surprised..

"Lorelai, this day has been enough for us," Richard said. Lorelai giggled and reached out a hand to help both of us up.

"Mom, Dad, this is from all of us," Lorelai said as she picked up Alicia, and she, Luke and Rory started towards the stairs.

Rory came over and took our hands. "Close your eyes," she said smiling. We looked at each other quizzically and then obeyed and allowed Rory to lead us up the stairs. We heard giggles among the group as we were lead down the hall and then finally Lorelai said, "Okay, open your eyes."

We found ourselves at the end of one side of the hall, and there was a big red bow on the door in front of us.

"What is this?" Richard asked.

"Open it," Luke said and I opened the door and we both stepped inside.

Inside was a large double bed, with a pick satin bed spread with white apple blossoms on it. A lovely lamp with a large shade was on one nightstand, and there was a bookcase along the side of the wall, filled with books. There were white lace curtains on the window, but the thing that caught my eye right away was the left wall. The entire wall was covered from top to bottom in pictures. There were pictures of Lorelai's childhood, of Rory's childhood and growing up years. There were Rory's school pictures, Lorelai's wedding pictures, baby pictures of Alicia and Rory. The entire wall was full of them.

"Welcome to your room," Lorelai said smiling and we both turned towards her.

"What?" I said.

"I wanted you to have a 'special place here all your own,'" she said, adopting an aristocratic accent.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Yeah Mom, I am," she said moving towards us. "This is your room, and when ever you stay here you can stay in this room, if you ever are here and you just need to get away for awhile, this place is here."

"This is beautiful," I breathed, and hugged her to me. "Thank you,"

Luke stepped towards me and leaned down and kissed me on the cheek, "You both are always welcome here," he said. "That's what we wanted to say."

"Thank you Luke," I said, and once again tears burned at my eyes.

"Anybody up for pancakes?" Luke asked as he started out of the room. The rest followed and I stayed behind for a moment, looking at each picture with delight.

"Are you coming?" Lorelai asked as she walked towards me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"I love you," I said turning to her. "You know that?"

"Yeah," she said. "I do," she said putting her arm around me and arm and arm we walked out of my new room.

"I love you too," she said as we walked down the stairs to Christmas morning breakfast.

To Be Concluded