Lorelai, Charlotte and Rory were busy making a snowman in the middle of the square.

"How do you like that mouth?" Lorelai asked, making finishing touches to it.

"It's not very mouthlike." Rory said doubtfully.

"At all!" Charlotte agreed.

"Oh, I think it works." Lorelai shrugged.

"It's tilted to the side!" Rory pointed out.

"Yeah, but that was intentional. It gives her a unique expression." Lorelai joked.

"Like she had a stroke?" Charlotte chipped in.

"Fine!" Lorelai relented. "I'll just use the Mrs. Potato Head lips."

"No, forget it, leave it. It's not like we're going to win this anyway." Rory said.

"Whoa, bad attitude!" Lorelai said.

"Come on Mom! We all know that is the single most incredible snowman we have ever seen." Charlotte said gesturing to the man working on an elaborate snow sculpture behind them.

"No I'm sorry, that snowman is way over the top. It's way too showy." Lorelai shook her head.

"That's kind of the point of a snowman-building contest." Rory pointed out.

"Urgh, I hate this man with every fibre of my being." Lorelai grimaced as he gave them a smile.

"He looks nice." Rory said.

"He's a ringer."

"How do you know that?"

"It's obvious. Someone must have recruited him, promised him a handsome sum of money, then financed his snowman making skills just so he could snatch victory away from a more deserving local of the town in order to bag the contest prize for himself." Lorelai said.

"Uh mom? That seems a little elaborate considering that the prize is a set of new US quarters." Charlotte smirked.

"Urgh, well we should ignore him now." Lorelai said. "So, what are we all going to do on your school break?" She smiled at them.

"Nothing." Rory said.

"Sounds good." Lorelai nodded.

"Plus some homework." Rory added.

"And lots of movies." Lorelai grinned.

"Ooh, we have to rent Godfather 3 on DVD." Rory exclaimed.

"You're kidding." Lorelai laughed.

"No! In the audio commentary, Coppola actually defends casting Sofia." Rory grinned.

"Now that is fatherly love." Lorelai said. "What's all this homework you have to do?" She asked.

"Just stuff for the paper." Rory sighed.

"What? Why?"

"Because Paris wants the first issue back to be a double issue, so we have to prepare it over break and she says the news never sleeps."

"What about Paris, does she ever sleep?" Lorelai joked.

"I think she periodically makes a whirring noise and then just shuts down. Like a computer." Rory joked.

"Well, you can't work the whole time." Lorelai complained.

"I won't, I promise." Rory assured her.

Lorelai then looked at Charlotte. "You've gone pretty quiet. Any plans for your school break apart from spending every waking minute with your fabulous mother and sister, of course!" She grinned.

"Oh..well.." Charlotte said hesitantly.

"What?" Lorelai asked.

"Jess and I were going to hang out a bit. He's off school too and we were going to go to Andrew's bookstore and..well, just...hang." Charlotte said.

"Oh...well of course!" Lorelai said forcing a smile on her face. "Of course the two of you would want to hang out. It's what boyfriends and girlfriends do. Just...hang out..." Lorelai said.

"Mom..." Charlotte said. She knew her mom had been struggling with the idea of her and Jess. She had tried to hide it but she wasn't very good a it.

"Oh my God!" Rory suddenly exclaimed.

"What?" Lorelai asked.

"He's power buffing!"

Lorelai and Charlotte turned round. "Right, now that is just wrong!" Lorelai exclaimed.

"We're competing against the Michelangelo of snow." Charlotte smirked.

"And we're that boy from 'The Snowman'.

"We shouldn't look at him anymore." Rory said.

"You're right. Heads down, stay focused." Lorelai said.

"We can do this!" Rory nodded.

"Absolutely!" Lorelai said.

Charlotte smirked as their snowman's head fell. "So...coffee?" She suggested.

"Right behind you." Lorelai sighed as she and Rory followed Charlotte to Luke's.

They sat at a table by the window once they entered the diner.

"I'll get the coffee." Lorelai said getting up.

"No, I'll get it." Charlotte said quickly spotting Jess by the till, getting up and heading over to the counter.

Rory watched their mom watch Charlotte and Jess with a worried look on her face. "She's happy, mom." She said softly.

"Huh what?" Lorelai said taking her gaze away from Charlotte and Jess for a second.

"Charlie. She seems really happy with Jess." Rory said.

"Yeah...she does." Lorelai said quietly.

"Can't you give him a second chance? He seems to really like her too." Rory said quietly. "It would mean a lot to her."

Lorelai sighed. "I don't have to like him, Rory. I can't do anything about them being together but it doesn't mean I have to like him."

"No, but wouldn't it be easier for everyone if you at least tried to be civil?" She pointed out. Both of them looked over at the counter when they heard laughter and they saw Charlotte laughing at whatever Jess had said and him smirking in return. "I've not seen her this happy since...well, ever." Rory said. "I'm pretty sure he's the cause of that."

Lorelai sighed and watched her other daughter chat and laugh with Jess. "Fine, I'll be civil but that's it." She said.

"Thanks mom." Rory smiled at her.

"Three coffees and our food's coming." Charlotte grinned as she returned to the table.

Later that day, Lorelai and Sookie had been listening to some music auditions for The Bracebridge Dinner they were having at the inn that week. As she was listening to a harpist play, her cell rang.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Hey Lor, it's me." Chris said.

"Oh, hi Chris! How are you?" She smiled.

"Good, good. Have you..uh..got a minute?" He asked.

"Uh oh." Lorelai said.

"It's not an uh oh." He laughed. "I just wanted to run an idea by you."

"Oh ok. Run it." She smiled.

"Now it's totally your call and I don't want to step on any plans you've already made. But I know Rory and Charlotte have a break in school coming up, and I was wondering if you'd be cool with them coming to visit for a couple of days." He said.

"Oh..uh..a couple of days? You mean they'd stay the night?" Lorelai asked her smile faltering.

"Yeah, it's totally your call though." He said. "Where are you, heaven?" He joked hearing the harp play in the background.

"Do you even have room for them to stay?" Lorelai asked, hoping he didn't.

"Not just room, a room." He said. "A designated guest room with two twin beds. Sherry fixed it up really nice" He smiled.

"Aw, good for her." Lorelai said unconvincingly.

"So what do you think?" He asked.

"I don't know. It's awfully last minute." She said trying to stall.

"It's totally last minute. You can say no and there'll be no hard feelings at all." Chris assured her.

"Well..." She said, really not being able to come up with an excuse to say no. "...it's really up to Rory and Charlotte to say yes or no."

"So you're cool with it?" He asked.

"Yeah...sure! If they are, yeah."

"Great, that's great. Thank you." He smiled. "Well I'll let you run it past them and you can get back to me whenever. No pressure."

"No pressure." She forced a smile.

"Talk to you later." He smiled.

"Yeah, talk to you later." She said before hanging up and sighing.

*******************************

The three of them were at their weekly Friday Night Dinner but this week, there wasn't that much conversation. Rory and Charlotte exchanged a look before looking at their mom and gesturing for her to say something.

"So what are your travel plans, Dad?" She asked.

"Hmm..what?" Richard asked looking up.

"You and mom, you always go out of town this time of year." Lorelai smiled.

"Last year it was the Bahamas." Rory said.

"Oh yeah, I was so jealous!" Charlotte chipped in.

"Yes, that's right, it was." Richard said.

"I remember you had fun too." Lorelai said. "You said the Bahama...mians were real nice. The Bahamites? The Bahamamamamians?" She asked looking at her daughters for guidance.

"The Bahamians." Rory nodded.

"Yes. You said they were really nice." Lorelai nodded.

"They were nice." Emily agreed.

"So, what are your plans then?"

"We're not going anywhere this year." Emily said sullenly.

"Why not?" Rory asked. Emily gestured towards Richard who had gone back to his food. "Oh...well it can be really nice just to stay at home sometimes as well because you can do fun things that you normally wouldn't have time for." She said trying to put a positive spin on it.

"Yeah, like play Running Charades. Oooh or getting out that Slip 'n Slide." Charlotte joked.

"We'll see." Richard said.

"Yes, we'll see." Emily sighed.

"Would you all excuse me?" Richard said suddenly getting up. "I have to make some calls. Say goodbye before you leave, will you?"

"Yeah...uh...sure Dad." Lorelai said and they all watched him leave the room. She turned back to her mother. "God when is all this awfulness with work going to resolve itself?" She exclaimed.

"I don't know!" Emily exclaimed. "The man is so sensitive. He reads so much into every little perceived slight."

"Yeah. I remember one time when I was a kid, Dad had put on some weight, and he bought a new suit to try to cover it up. And he wore it for us and he asked us how he looked and I told him he looked fat." Lorelai said but stopped, glancing up at her daughters who were smirking and her mother who was glaring at her. "But I guess that wasn't really a perceived slight..." She said. "I'll think of another example."

*******************************

Lorelai, Sookie, Charlotte and Rory were all sat at a table at Luke's looking miserable.

"I've got thirty pounds of aged beef, trays and trays of trout and mountains of pruned tarts. I diced pumpkins until my hands turned orange. I've got pumpkin hands! Sookie exclaimed.

"Take a sip." Lorelai said sympathetically gesturing to her coffee.

"How can you stay so calm about this? We've been organising this event for a week!" Sookie said.

"I know but there's nothing we can do about it." Lorelai sighed.

"I can't believe they got snowed in." Rory said.

"All that work, all that extra help we hired." She sighed. "At least they paid for it already. We didn't lose any money."

"Yeah I guess." Sookie sighed. "You know, I could still make up the dinner for the four of us." She suggested.

"Yeah, but then it would be like the four of us, all alone in the dining room." Charlotte said.

"Yeah it would be like The Shining, except instead of Jack Nicholson, we have Rune." Lorelai joked.

Just then Luke walked over to them. "Do you want anything besides coffee?" He asked.

"Hey, what about Luke?" Sookie said suddenly.

"What about him?" Lorelai asked.

"He eats, and Jess eats." She said turning to Charlotte. "Doesn't Jess eat?" She asked.

Charlotte smirked. "Yep I can confirm that Jess eats." She nodded.

"What's she doing?" Luke asked Lorelai.

"I think she's inviting you for dinner." Lorelai smiled.

"Yeah, come on, join us! It'll be fun, I promise." Sookie grinned. "Do you like Peacock Pie?"

"I'm a hundred percent sure I don't." Luke said dryly.

"There'll be normal food too." Charlotte grinned at him.

"And decorations." Rory quipped.

"And music." Sookie added.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Lorelai grinned.

"Well..." Luke said.

"Hey, you know what?" Lorelai said warming up to the idea. "Let's invite everyone!"

"Everyone who?" Sookie asked.

"Everyone everyone!"

"Everyone everyone who?" Sookie asked not getting it.

"Everyone we know, everyone we like! Everyone from this town!" Lorelai beamed.

" Yeah and they could even stay in the inn. All those empty rooms, all those uneaten pillow mints." Rory said.

"Cool! An out of control, over the top slumber party!" Charlotte grinned.

"I love it!" Sookie grinned.

"Me too!" Lorelai grinned. She turned to Luke. "Done! Spread the word!"

"I haven't said I'd come yet so I'm certainly not about to become your messenger boy." He grumbled. He sighed as Lorelai pouted at him. "Eight o'clock?"

"Seven." She grinned.

"Right." He sighed walking off.

*******************************

Lorelai was sat on the couch in the Crap Shack while Charlotte was sat in the armchair. Rory walked in with some drinks.

"Hey, did Bootsy RSVP?" She asked.

"Yeah, he's coming." Rory nodded.

"Thanks. Is he bringing anybody?" Lorelai asked.

"He's coming solo." Rory said.

"Do you think he just suddenly got a girlfriend?" Charlotte joked.

"Well you never know." Lorelai grinned. "Ok, I'm going to put him in room 16 with Luke." She joked looking down at her room plan.

"You're mean." Rory laughed.

"Come on, let me have my fun!" Lorelai joked.

"You forget Jess is coming too." Rory pointed out.

"Well, I'll put Jess in with Miss Patty." She grinned.

"Mom!" Charlotte exclaimed. "There would be no Jess left in the morning." She said. "If you really want to put Luke with Bootsy, Jess and I can share a room." She joked.

"What?" Lorelai whipped her head off. "No. No way!" She said quickly.

"Mom, I was just kidding." Charlotte laughed. "Geez, you need to chill..."

"Oh...well..." Lorelai said trying to get the image of her daughter and Jess sharing a room out of her head. "So Jess and Luke in room 16." She said focusing back on her room plan.

Rory gave her sister a look for trying to stir things up before picking up a pile of cards from the table. "Are these last year's cards or this year's?" She asked trying to change the subject.

"This year's, of course." Lorelai said.

"Hey, don't scoff! Last year's set were still sitting here until Halloween." She pointed out.

"If that's a crack at my housekeeping skills...well then, okay." Lorelai shrugged.

"Ooh let me see too! I haven't seen these yet." Charlotte said.

Rory sat on the arm of the armchair with Charlotte and they flipped through them together. "Oh hey, it's dad." She said as they both looked at their dad's Christmas card.

"And the woman I'm assuming is Sherry." Charlotte said looking at it with interest.

"Uh...did I not show you that?" Lorelai asked cringing.

"Aw they've got a cute little puppy and everything." Charlotte said.

"I must have put it in the stack and forgotten to tell you both about it." Lorelai rambled. "Well, there it is."

"Nice looking lady." Rory commented.

"Yeah...she is...like a young Tammy Faye Baker." Lorelai said uncomfortably.

"Prettier than that." Charlotte said.

"Oh, I didn't mean not pretty." Lorelai said quickly. "Hey, question about the room list?" She said trying to take the attention away from the card.

"Yeah?" Rory asked.

"Room 31. Why is it empty?" She asked.

Rory and Charlotte exchanged a glance. "Oh yeah...well we wanted to run an idea by you." Rory said.

"Run it."

"We thought maybe a certain depressed man and his wife could stay there." Rory said hesitantly.

"Who?" Lorelai asked.

"Grandma and Grandpa." Charlotte said.

"Urgh, you've got to be kidding." Lorelai groaned.

"But this could help to cheer him up." Rory protested.

"Yeah come on, mom! Grandma would like it as well." Charlotte said.

"Urgh fine...I'll pencil them in, but they'll probably say no." Lorelai said.

"Yeah, but we're not going hope that they say no, right?" Rory raised her eyebrows.

"Oh yeah sure!" Lorelai said totally unconvincingly.

*******************************

The night of the Bracebridge Dinner finally arrived and Charlotte and Rory were in the lobby of the inn ready to greet their guests.

"How's Sookie doing in there?" Charlotte asked as Lorelai joined them.

"Oh well, you know, she's paper bagging it." Lorelai said.

"What?" Rory asked confused.

"You know..." Lorelai said miming breathing into a pretend bag.

"Oh, so she's right on schedule then." Charlotte laughed.

"She'll be fine." Lorelai nodded.

Babette and Morey walked into the inn at that moment.

"Hey dolls!" Babette smiled at the three of them.

"Hey!" Lorelai smiled fondly at their eccentric neighbours.

"Hi, welcome!" Rory smiled.

"Are we the first ones here?" Morey asked.

"Yep!" Charlotte said.

"Now don't you freak out." Babette told Morey. "Morey hates being the first anywhere. He thinks it hurts his street credibility." She told them.

"Charlie Parker was late to everything." Morey said.

"You guys are in room 8. It's all ready for you." Charlotte said hiding a smirk as she handed them their key.

"Thanks, doll." Babette smiled at her. "Come on Morey. We can be late for dinner if it'll make you feel better." She said as they walked off.

Lane walked in at that moment and rushed over to them. "Hey!" She smiled at them.

"Hey!" Rory smiled.

"Are you alone?" Charlotte asked.

"Lane!" Mrs Kim's voice rang out as she entered the inn.

"My wedding night's going to be very interesting." She joked.

"Hi Mrs. Kim. I'm glad you guys could come. You are in room 12." Rory smiled politely at her.

"Thank you. Hello Lorelai, thank you for inviting us." Mrs Kim said politely.

"Oh it's our pleasure." Lorelai smiled. "Do you need help bringing in the rest of your stuff?"

"This is my stuff. I don't need any more stuff. People have too much stuff." Mrs Kim said firmly.

"You know you're right." Lorelai nodded. "People have too much stuff. Absolutely!"

"Says the woman with 64 pairs of shoes." Charlotte smirked. "Poor Lane."

"At least she's still here." Rory said.

"Hey, what is Paris doing here?" Lorelai asked as she saw Paris walk in. "And Tristan...?" She said surprised as he came in after Paris.

"Paris had to bring me the newspaper stuff tonight. She just couldn't wait." Rory said. "I have no idea what Tristan is doing here though." She frowned, looking at Charlotte. "Do you know?"

"I may have mentioned it to him." She shrugged.

"What? When?" Rory exclaimed.

"Uh...I don't know. The other day. We are friends. We do talk, you know." Charlotte said.

"Why did you have to invite him to this though?"

"I didn't." Charlotte said. "Maybe he wanted to see you." She shrugged.

"Charlie!"

Charlotte sighed. "Look I'll go talk to him. You deal with Paris." She said walking off to Tristan. Rory sighed as she watched Charlotte chat with Tristan. She walked over to Paris to deal with the newspaper stuff. "Hey!" Charlotte smiled at Tristan.

"Hey." He said. "Thought I'd come to check this out." He said.

"Or check someone out." Charlotte smirked, glancing over at Rory.

"What? No." He protested weakly. "I didn't know this was a Chilton get together though." He joked gesturing over to Paris.

"Newspaper stuff." Charlotte explained.

"Oh." Tristan said understanding.

"So are you going to stay for the dinner?" She asked him.

"Will that be allowed?" Tristan asked glancing over at Rory.