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"On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me -".

Vala paused in the hallway, cocking her head as she listened to an unexpected noise. Was that Samantha Carter... singing?

Speeding up, she strode into Sam's lab. To her surprise, Sam was not just singing - she was also hanging a few brightly colored balls on a small tree. Around the normally stark room, a few carefully placed decorations of some kind brought a certain sense of cheer.

Eyebrows quirked, Vala had to ask, "What are we celebrating?"

Sam jumped a bit - another surprising circumstance, as the colonel was normally very aware of her surroundings. She smiled a bit sheepishly. "Christmas!" she chirped as Vala walked over to meet her. "I don't normally celebrate it very much, but I get to spend it with-", she paused so briefly that Vala almost missed it, "my family this year." She looked a bit flushed as she added that little detail, tucking her hair behind her ear self-consciously.

Ah. General O'Neill. Colonel Carter seemed to think that her relationship with the silver-haired fox in one of the pictures in her office was a secret, but it hadn't taken Vala long to figure out that the woman was head over heels for him. Even if the somewhat oblique comments her teammate had made hadn't tipped her off, the little telephone conversation she'd accidentally (well, mostly accidentally) overheard one day made the status of the relationship quite clear. How fishing became so loaded with innuendo was definitely something she'd have to ask about one day. But first -

"What is Christmas?" Vala hadn't heard anyone mention this before. Is it like this... Thanksgiving they just had? Colonel Mitchell had explained that this holiday was a day on which people took the time to appreciate what they had. He then described such a variety of foods typically eaten on said day that Vala rather suspected he was mainly grateful for the ability to eat.

But while the name of that holiday made the reason for the day rather self-explanatory, this Christmas did not make sense at all.

Sam breathed an, "Ah," out as she nodded in understanding. "Oh, that's right - you probably wouldn't have Christmas outside of Earth."

Vala nodded, raising an eyebrow.

"Well," Sam began, clearly gathering her thoughts, "it's a holiday where families and friends come together and give each other presents-"

"Presents!" Vala interjected. This sounds promising. "What kind of presents? How many?"

Sam looked a bit taken aback at the question. "Well... any kind of presents, really," she said. "The amount of them usually depends on a person's budget."

Vala wrinkled her nose. "What's a budget?"

Sam grinned, and Vala got the distinct impression she was containing a laugh. "That's a looong discussion for another day," she replied. "Let's sort Christmas first."

Vala agreed. "Weren't you just singing about gifts at Christmas?"

Sam nodded, "Well, yes. That was what we call a Christmas carol." She began rattling off the rather long list of gifts that the singer's true love gave over the course of twelve days.

Vala could practically feel her own brain turning.

"What an odd set of gifts for the woman you love. I mean, I know what I could do with ten lords, but what on earth would I do with nine dancing ladies?" Vala felt puzzled until an idea suddenly came to her. "Although, they could keep nine of the lords occupied if I wanted to steal away with one of them..."

Sam looked as if the conversation had gone very far out of her depth. "You know, this might be a question for Daniel. He'd know more about the background of Christmas songs and traditions than I would."

If the man would get out of his books for half an hour, I'd ask, Vala thought. Daniel had been busier than usual lately. She was barely able to talk him into eating a very light lunch with her today. In his office. After she'd plopped a tray on top of the manuscript he was translating.

Then - screw it. "I'll go ask!" Sam was already enjoying this holiday cheer. Daniel ought to be celebrating, too. Preferably with the other sexy female on his team. Vala turned to go.

Sam smiled. "Have fun!"

Vala turned back with a teasing grin. "And you have fun with your General, Samantha." She winked as Sam turned bright red and then walked into the hall.

Daniel was at a bit of a loss.

Vala had just barged into his office and laid right out on top of the documents from P2C-779 he was in the process of translating. So far the translation was quite intriguing, but he was now distracted by a bigger puzzle.

How to explain Christmas to Vala Mal Doran.

Explaining the origin story of the birth of Christ would present some difficulty given the questions Vala would likely raise about the similarities between it and the myths surrounding the Goa'uld and the Asgard. Explaining the variety of Christmas traditions and their histories to Vala would be even more time consuming.

"You know," Daniel hummed as Vala firmly stared at him, clearly not backing down until she got an answer. "I'm not exactly sure I can answer verbally."

With a furrowed brow, Vala argued, "Samantha said you'd know more about it."

Daniel grimaced. Of course. The whole team was quick to send Vala to Daniel with any questions that took more than a minute to answer. Every once in a while, he did get tired of being the team communicator.

"What I mean is... I think I need to show you instead."

"Show me?" Vala answered, looking intrigued as she straightened up. "How?"

Daniel looked down in introspection before answering. "I think I have a plan. I'll just need to call in some help..."