The turkey was finished, and Penny poked at a slice of pumpkin log curiously with her fork, while Della decimated her third piece.
"I thought Earth 'junk food' was to be eaten sparingly," she said.
"Normally, yes," Della said with her mouth full, then swallowed. "We get extra on holidays."
"And why are you using the small bowl on the stick while the others use spears?"
"Tastes better this way," said Della, and scooped up another bite.
"No it doesn't," said Donald, rolling his eyes.
"Donald, you eat it however you want, but ninety-nine percent of desserts are meant to be eaten with a spoon, and the pumpkin log is among them."
"How does that enhance its flavor?" Penny asked.
"I don't know the science behind it. It just does."
Dewey switched his fork for a spoon. He took a bite and his eyes went wide.
"I may never go back," he whispered.
"That's my boy," said Della, and reached over to take Huey's plate from him once he'd had a few bites of his piece. "Sorry, kiddo. Don't want you runnin' wild tonight. See? Mom's learning." She tapped on her temple. "You can have more tomorrow as long as it's daylight."
"That is, if Della doesn't eat it all before you get the chance," Scrooge muttered.
"I'm putting it in the fridge for him," Della said defensively. "I'll leave a note."
"You can have it," Huey said with a shrug. "We're gonna make cookies anyway, remember?"
"That's right!" Della grinned and headed for the kitchen. On the way, she said in a sing-songy voice, "Christmas cookies with my Christmas kids!"
"Y'oh boy ," Louie said once she was out of the room. "Christmas is turning Mom into a nerd."
"Be nice," said Beakley, swatting him with a napkin as she cleared the table. "And all of you, go help her with the dishes." She handed Louie a stack of dessert plates.
"Isn't that literally what you get paid for?" he said.
"Webby and I have to reset the fairy traps. This is the easiest job I could possibly give you."
"Alright," Louie groaned, getting up from his chair and going to the kitchen while Huey and Dewey collected the rest of the dishes.
"Alright!" Della said enthusiastically as she scraped the food off the plates and into the trash. "The Ducks are on dish duty!"
The boys stood on three chairs in front of the counter, and she handed them each a sponge.
"Huey, you wash the silverware, Louie, you do plates, Dewey, you do the glasses." She opened a drawer and took out a rag. "And I'll dry!"
The boys all started on their tasks, and Louie raised an eyebrow. "How are you this excited about chores?"
"It's all part of family holidays," she said with a shrug as Huey passed her a couple of forks to dry.
Louie washed and rinsed the first plate and handed it to her, and she wiped down the top side of it with the rag before pausing when she caught her reflection in it. She took a deep breath and smiled slightly at it.
"Hey," Huey said, looking up at her. "You're looking at your reflection!"
"Huh?" Della jerked her head back up. "Oh, yeah. It's been getting better lately." She glanced back down at the plate and quickly dried the bottom of it before setting it aside on the counter. It still wasn't the easiest thing in the world, but she could manage for more than a few seconds at a time.
Louie looked between his brothers and his mom in confusion, but kept quiet and went back to washing.
A few minutes went by without much talking, and soon Huey finished the silverware and took the rag from Della.
"Here, Mom," he said. "We can take care of the rest. You can go hang out with everybody in the foyer."
"Oh, okay," she said. "If you really don't mind."
"Nah," said Dewey. "Go bug Uncle Donald for us!"
"Sounds like a plan," she called as she ran out the door.
Donald was the only one in the foyer when Della got there, grumbling as he tried to tune his guitar by the tree. By his feet was a box of ornaments that Della hadn't noticed while they'd been decorating earlier. It was worn at the corners and overstuffed with newspaper.
Della unwrapped a piece of it, and underneath was an arts and crafts project on a string. Three popsicle sticks were glued together over a square of brown construction paper to vaguely resemble a Christmas tree, and in the center was a picture of Louie wearing a Santa hat in his kindergarten classroom. Della ran her thumb over the edges and grinned.
"Donald," she said, startling him enough to snap a string off of his guitar. "Are these the boys' ornaments? Why didn't you take them out earlier?"
"We don't keep them in here," said Donald as he went over to the box and started unwrapping more ornaments to hang up. "They were behind the VCR."
Della hung Louie's popsicle stick ornament and stood back to admire it. "It's so cute I don't even care about the Santa hat."
The boys peeked through the kitchen door and watched her. Louie blushed. Huey took out his notepad and wrote "NO SANTA".
Donald held up a clay ornament with Huey's name scrawled on the back, the front a crude image of Santa Claus with a lopsided face. "What about this one?"
"Hm," Della said, a hand on her chin. "Maybe Scrooge won't recognize it?"
"Nice try," said Scrooge, poking his cane through the loop of string on the ornament and dropping it back in the box. Donald quickly crouched down to carefully wrap it in newspaper again. "But no amount of adorable shoddiness will make me accept a likeness of that sleigh-bellin' sumph in my house!"
"Fair point," said Della. "What else have we got?" She moved to pick up another wad of newspaper, but stopped at the sound of Penny's blaster coming from the TV room.