Penumbra held the tree upright in the foyer as Della finished fastening it into the stand. Above them, Webby hung paper snowflakes from the ceiling, keeping a grip on the cord of her grappling hook as it hung off of a beam, and back on the ground, Launchpad rifled through some Christmas songbooks by the piano and Donald tried to untangle a string of Christmas lights.
"A-a-and, there. Thanks, Penny," said Della as she stood up to admire the tree. "I gotta say, I missed a lot of things about Earth, but Christmas is definitely toward the top of that list. You know, after my family, and food, and ambient noises."
"Explain this to me again?" said Penny, and hit the trunk once to shake off the remaining snow.
Della started hanging ornaments.
"The short version is, you get together with your family, decorate a tree, eat food, sing carols, and give each other presents," she said, then took a small box out of her pocket. "Lke this one that I got for my best friend!"
Penny eyed it curiously. "What does it do?"
"No, the gift is underneath all this," said Della as she set it under the tree. "You open it on Christmas Day and find out what it is."
"Why?"
"Because it's fun!"
Donald looked away from his mess of lights and went to take the ornaments off of the tree.
"You have to put the lights on first," he said with annoyance.
"Alright," Della said, and rolled her eyes. "Don't have an aneurysm."
"I'm not having an aneurysm!"
"Ah, it's okay. Wouldn't be Christmas without it, anyway."
Donald clenched his jaw and grumbled unintelligibly as he went back to untangling the lights. As quietly as she could, Della started hanging her ornaments in the yarn of his sweater. She'd gotten a good half dozen on there before Huey, Dewey, and Louie walked in. Her eyes lit up when she saw them.
"Aw, you all look so festive!" She ran up and gave the three of them a brief but very tight hug. "This is perfect. I finally get to have Christmas with my boys, and I get to teach their Aunt Penny all about it!"
"I'm not their aunt," said Penny, for what clearly was not the first time.
"Aunt Goldie used to say the same thing," said Della, just as Scrooge came down the stairs into the foyer with a large crate.
"She's not your aunt," he said sternly.
Della stage-whispered to Penny, "But I think it grew on her."
As Scrooge set the crate down and started unpacking his Santa traps, Penny looked up and observed Webby curiously for a moment before her eyes wandered across the ceiling to a point more directly above her.
"What is that?" she asked, and Della came over to see.
"Mistletoe," she replied.
"What's the purpose?"
Della climbed up the stepladder that had been set up in front of the tree. "This is," she said, and kissed Penny on the cheek before climbing back down.
Penny's eyes widened and her face flushed. Donald and the boys stared at her in surprise, and she reached for the blaster on her belt to signal for them to look away.
A piano chord called Della's attention to Launchpad, who was happily warming up for caroling. She walked over to see the songbooks and noticed the menorah design on his sweater.
"Launchpad," she said. "You celebrate Hanukkah? You can light a menorah in here, if you want."
"Launchpad's not supposed to be near open flames," said Dewey as he and his brothers rifled through the ornament box.
"Especially during the holidays," said Launchpad. "It's okay, though. Mrs. B's gonna make latkes with Christmas dinner."
"Suit yourself," said Della, and picked up a book to flip through. "Hey, do you know 'Holly and the Ivy'?"
"Sure do," he said, and started to play.
Della walked back over to the tree, where Donald had finally starting stringing the lights and the boys had started hanging ornaments, smiles on all their faces. She sang softly as she helped them decorate.
"The holly and the ivy, when they are both full grown…"
She picked up another ornament, but stopped as she struggled to remember the next line. Launchpad tried to fill it in.
"Then the holly and the ivy will both be full grown," he sang with confidence.
Della stared at the ornament in her hand. "Been awhile since I've heard this song."
The boys and Donald shared a worried look, and Huey tried to reassure her, "Well, it's not really one of the more well-known carols."
"Oh yeah, I forget the words every year," said Dewey.
"I've never even heard it," said Louie.
"You have," said Donald, struggling to keep a section of string lights hanging on the tree. "You just couldn't understand my singing."
"What?" the boys all said. Donald just sighed.
The family heard Scrooge grunting as he tried to set up a bear trap in front of the fireplace.
"Let me help you with that, Uncle Scrooge," said Della, and ran over to pull out one side of the trap. They managed to get it open, but it snapped back shut a second later, taking hold of Della's prosthetic and flipping her upside down, hanging from the side.
The boys yelped, "Mom!" and rushed toward her, but she simply twisted out of the leg and held onto the wall to prop herself back up.
"It's okay," she said, holding out her free hand to calm them down. "Really, I'm fine. It just got the metal leg. She hopped back to retrieve it and grunted as she tried to pull it out. "Now, let's...see...if we can…ugh."
Penny came and opened the trap back up, pushed it into the fireplace, and handed Della back her leg.
"Thanks, Pen," she said as she reattached it.
A puzzled hum came from the ceiling, and everyone looked up to see Webby staring at her snowflakes, which hadn't covered the distance she had hoped for.
"Guess I didn't space them out enough," she said as she rappelled down to the floor.
"We can always make more," said Della. "I was pretty good at it when I was your age. In fact -" She gasped excitedly. "I think I still have my old paper-slicing thing! I'll go look in the garage."
Once Della was out of the room, Huey took out his spiral notebook from under his hat and flipped it open.
"Mom likes crafts," he said, making a note on the bottom of the page. "That could be helpful."
Donald raised an eyebrow and snatched the notebook from him. "What is this?"
The title of the list stood out immediately: MOM'S PRESENT.
Donald furrowed his brow. "You still haven't gotten her a present?" He heard jingling and finally registered the weight on his sweater. He dropped the notebook and reached back to try and get the ornaments off.
"We've tried," said Dewey. "It's kinda hard to shop for the coolest person on the planet."
"It doesn't have to be perfect," said Webby. "I'm sure she'll like anything you give her!"
"But if it's half-baked, she might think we don't care enough about her to try and do something special," said Huey.
Dewey jumped up on a stepstool in front of the tree and went on, "And that'll just remind her how much of our childhood she missed."
"And then she'll be kicking herself over it even more!"
Dewey pointed emphatically. "With the metal leg!"
"Maybe Webby's right," said Louie as he continued decorating the tree. "Mom said we don't even have to get her a present."
"Parents always say stuff like that," said Huey.
"She's happy enough to be home," said Scrooge. "Just get her something. A card, or a clay ornament."
"Mom's been everywhere and done everything," said Dewey. "A homemade ornament's not gonna cut it."
Penny chimed in, "Judging from what she told me - and it was a lot - Scrooge is probably right. She's pretty excited about this whole 'family Christmas' thing."
Just then, Della came bursting back in carrying a cardboard box.
"Couldn't find the paper-slicing thingy," she called. "But I got something even better!"
"You're on a deadline," Scrooge said quietly to the boys. "Figure something out."
Della set the box on the floor and took out a VHS tape in each hand. "Home movies! Uncle Scrooge, do we have anything to play these on?"
"There's a VCR on the houseboat," said Donald as he tried in vain to get an ornament place in the middle of his back. "I'll get it in a minute."
"Perfect! Everyone else to the TV room!"
She picked the box back up and ran out.