Another whole year had passed, and winter had once again returned to the deceptively sleepy-looking town of Gravity Falls. Stan Pines was lounging in his old recliner and distractedly flipping through the channels when the relative quiet was broken by a telltale honk outside. It sounded like Soos was back from the bus station. A grin swept across the old man's craggy features as he clambered to his feet and headed out the door.

"Special delivery!" Soos cheered and honked his truck horn again. One of the doors opens up and out spilled two fourteen year olds and a small pig.

"Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Staaaaaaaaaan!" Mabel flashed a braceless pearly white smile while she raced headlong for him.

"Hey, Grunkle Stan!" Dipper trailed close behind at his sister's heels.

"Geez, you two again?! But I just had to spend another whole summer with you!" Stan complained in mock-annoyance before they nearly bowled him over in a joint crush. It was getting harder to withstand the force of these hugs the way the two of them had really started to shoot up like sprouts. But at least this time he stayed on his feet, and after steadying himself he wrapped his wrinkled arms tightly around the both of them. "Good to see you little gremlins back so soon."

The epic hug had just ended before another familiar face emerged from the Shack. Melody didn't get a chance to say hello or even get a single syllable in before Mabel detached from Stan and happily attacked her waist with a tight squeeze.

"MELLY!" The little teen squealed. The young woman bubbled with laughter as she squeezed the girl back with one arm and drew Dipper close with the other into a warm group embrace.

"Hey guys! Welcome back!" She excitedly greeted the siblings.

As soon as she let go, Mabel started bouncing all about with unrelenting joy. "We're here! We're here! I can't believe we're heeerrreee! Christmas in Gravity Falls! Ooooh, just look at it! It's like...it's like a Christmas card come to life!"

After marveling at the picturesque white-blanketed surroundings, she flung herself to the ground with a giddy laugh and began making an impromptu snow angel. Waddles flopped down and started rolling around in the snow beside her.

"You ready a whole week of this?" Dipper grinned at his great-uncle.

"Probably not." The old man half-honestly replied with a smile and a shrug. "But I'll try my best. Oh, and now that you're finally here…."

He turned and called back into the house. "Okay, hit it!"

The roof lit up brightly array of lights, all carefully arranged to spell out a familiar message.

"Yes! YES! Pines ruuuuule!" Mabel read the lights out loud at the top of her lungs, and agreed with a cheer. Dipper brightened up hopefully.

"Wait! So is-" His answer came before he was even done asking when another old man joined the reunion outside.

"Looks nice, huh?" Ford looked up at the roof and chuckled. "Though to be fair, I'm a little biased."

Even though they were happy to see him, the freshly-arrived teens couldn't help but let their faces falls a little with disappointment as they gave their other great-uncle a hug. Both of the elder twins easily noticed this.

"We know, we wish she was here too." Stan said with a nod. "But her old man didn't want her missing out on two years in a row on their wildman stuff."

"The whole annual training just feels so unnecessary at this point. I mean, what with the near-apocalypse having come and gone already." Ford gave his reasonable two cents on the matter. It had been pretty unfortunate the way Manly Dan had waffled back and forth all the past month before finally deciding just over a week ago that Wendy had to join the rest of the Corduroy clan for their usual "holiday."

"First Christmas up here, and no Wen-Wen." Mabel sighed.

Melody gave her empathetic pat on the head. "Trust us, no one's really happy about it."

"Yeah, Wen-dawg was especially bummed about it. But at least she got the time to put these up before she left with her dad and bros this morning." Soos nodded to the peculiar decorations up above.

"It's kind of like she's here, then." The brunette tried to look on the bright side of things. She glanced to her twin, who passed her a weak smile. It wasn't the holiday with the crew they originally hoped for when they had first been invited by their grunkles, but it was close enough.

"Oh, almost forgot." Ford remembered as he scratched Waddles behind the ears. "She also left a note for you too."

"Where is it?" Dipper asked way too excitedly for his own good. "Uh….I mean….do you have it?"

"Nah, she left it in your room upstairs."

"Great! Thanks Grunkle Stan!" Dipper took his bags and headed straight up to the attic, with Mabel trailing close behind.

Their shared room was more or less exactly as they left it since they last visited for their second summer up north only a few months ago, with a couple noticeable exceptions. A small handwritten note addressed to the twins lay on Dipper's bed, and nearly on the table a prepackaged platter of Christmas cookies waited for them.

"What'd she say?" Mabel plopped her bags on her bed with a squeak of old springs. Her brother sat down on his mattress, and was bounced an inch or two into the air when she took an eager seat right beside him.

"Dear guys - sorry I couldn't make this a twice-in-a-row deal." He read out loud. "But I still want to thank you so much for giving me at least one real-deal Christmas last year. I'll be thinking about it while I'm with my family all this week. In the meantime, don't get too bummed out without me. Just have a great time, and maybe my dad can let me leave training this year a little early. Hope to see you before you guys leave. Peace, Wendy. P.S. I left some cookies I got from the store. I would have made some, but you know I can't bake for the life of me."

As he finished reading, he reached under his shirt and took out the small hand-carved question mark dangling around his neck. The boy give it a squeeze while he let out a wistful sigh. "Hope to see you too."

"At least she left us a little something!" His ever-optimistic sister pulled him over to the cookies. "Ooooh, looks like she got us-"

She picked up the package, and by the time they noticed the attached string it was far too late. The siblings flew several feet up off the floor as a well-concealed net scooped up the both of them.

"Help!" Mabel yelped in panic. "Help! Help! Cookie betrayal!"

"Waaaait..." This all seemed awfully familiar to Dipper. His suspicions were confirmed when familiar laughter started to fill the attic. There was a clomp of boots as a flannel-clad figure dropped down from the rafters.

"Psyche!" Wendy grinned from ear to ear.

"Wendy!" Dipper gasped. "You're….you're here?!"

"Are you?" Mabel reached out and grabbed a handful of thick scarlet locks just to make sure. "Yes! It's the real deal!"

"Hey dudes." The redhead greeted with a casual nod. She then stomped hard twice on the floor, signaling to everyone downstairs that they could all drop the act. They could hear Stan's gruff chuckling echo up from from below.

"Sorry, guys!" Melody called.

"But…" Dipper's mind still reeled with joyous disbelief. "But I thought your Dad didn't want you to skip this year!"

"He really didn't. But it turns out if you show up at the house with a full grown doe that you caught on your own, he changes his mind pretty easily. After that, he decided that I'm probably as trained as I'm gonna get."

"Oooh, that poor deer!" Mabel couldn't help but be a little sympathetic.

"Don't worry, she was just totally fine. " said the older teen.

"But didn't you just say-"

"Anyone can take a bow or something and bag a deer. It takes a real Corduroy to take it down, bring it home, and release it in one piece." Wendy smirked as she proudly showed off a few heavy bruises on her arms. When the twins winced together at the leftovers of her ordeal, she reassured them with a simple and unrepentant, "Worth it."

"When did you even do that?" Dipper asked.

"Few days ago." She replied casually.

"And you couldn't tell us any of this earlier because…." The boy pried.

"Because surprises are fun, dummy." The older teenager replied matter of factly. Dipper burst out laughing.

"Yeah, for you." He reached out and yanked down the brim of her pine-tree cap.

"That's what counts!" Wendy snickered. Once she readjust her headwear back into place she sauntered over to the sturdy rope holding the twins up and lowered them back down to the floor. "So, it looks like you two dorks are stuck with me for another holiday."

The instant they were free they both rushed her. The redhead let out a grunt as she was squashed between them in a duel hug. But it wasn't long until the ecstatic twins could feel her wiry arms squeeze the two of them back just as fiercely.

"That's the best bad news I've ever heard." Dipper happily declared.

"Course it is." She replied cockily, followed by an extra squeeze for him.

"I kind of get the surprise, but was the net really necessary though?" He asked as he broke from the embrace. Meanwhile Mabel giddily held on to their friend for five seconds longer before she finally let go.

"You better believe it. This year you're on my turf, so we're doing the holiday a lot more Wendy-Style this time around." She announced.

"Last year wasn't enough?" Dipper's sass earned himself an affectionate shove.

"Not even close. Don't worry though, no one's sleeping outside this time around." She drew a blanket away from a lumpy pile to reveal her backpack, a sleeping bag, cot and pillow. Also crammed among all her things were what suspiciously looked like two half-finished bows that she hurriedly pushed out of sight.

"So what kind of stuff do you have planned?" Mabel asked as she bounced on her toes.

"A lot." She said vaguely.

"And how much of it is probably going to upset Stan and Ford?" Dipper pried.

"A lot. Probably." Her shameless answer got a hearty laugh out of her best friend.

"I'm in."

"Me too! Best first Christmas ever!" Mabel leapt several feet into the air with a mighty whoop. She then made sure to correctly clarify, "Best first Christmas in Gravity Falls ever!"

"Oooh, yeah it is. Okay, keep your boots and jackets on, and bust out those gloves, dudes." The redhead unsheathed a familiar hatchet.

"We're getting right to the itinerary already?" Dipper wore a grin big enough to split his face in half. Mabel giggled as she clapped her mittened hands. Wendy of course looked just as excited as the two of them, if not a little more so. It felt so good be back with her "other' family.

"Yup. It's like Mabes told me last year." Together the reunited trio happily trooped downstairs. "It's not Christmas without a tree…."

The End