Jim awoke on Wednesday morning to the smell of gingerbread wafting through the house, and the clanging of pots and pans from a floor below him. He pulled on his blue pyjama pants and walked downstairs to find Pam pulling a baking tray out of the oven. Once the tray was on the side and she'd removed her oven gloves, he slipped his arms around her waist. "Mornin'," he croaked. "What's all this?" he asked, his chin resting on Pam's shoulder.

"Oh no, you weren't meant to be awake yet," she moaned, turning in his arms. She ran her hands up his bare chest to pull him down for a kiss. "Why are you up anyway?" she asked after they pulled apart.

"Well, something smelt amazing," he grinned. "And also, you were banging around like a crazy woman down here," he laughed, causing Pam to blush. "So why are you baking gingerbread men at 7am?" 

"Go get your advent calendar and you'll find out," she said, smiling with her tongue poking just between her teeth. 

"Alright," he said, before lightly jogging up the stairs to retrieve the giant card and back down again to the kitchen, where he sat down at the kitchen table with it. He opened the card up and pulled out the envelope that Pam had written ‘three' on. He glanced up at her with a small smile as he slid his finger under the flap and then pulled out the postcard that Pam had decorated with little gingerbread men. All of them but two were simply decorated with smiling iced faces and gum drop buttons. Of the remaining two, one had been drawn wearing a pink cardigan and a white blouse and the other a pale blue shirt with a dark blue tie. "Are these us?" Jim laughed, pointing to the two gingerbread men at the bottom of the card.

"They are," Pam giggled.

"Amazing," Jim marvelled. "Dwight annoys you and drives you barmy. Time to take over with a Jim-gerbread army. Wow," he chuckled. "Ok, two questions. Number one. What does barmy mean?"

"Oh, it's some British word for like driving you crazy. I needed something to rhyme with army," she explained.

"And second. Jim-gerbread. Love it. But what exactly am I meant to do with an army of them?"

"Well, I've made 48 of these little guys," she said, holding up one of the gingerbread men, "and I thought you could hide them around Dwight's desk and the rest of the office. Kinda make him think that gingerbread men are taking over."

"You mean Jim-gerbread men are taking over?" 

"Right," she laughed. 

"Why not round it up to 50?" he asked, placing the card onto the table before walking over to where Pam was standing, icing tube in hand.

Pam turned around smiling holding real life replicas of the Jim and Pam gingerbread illustrations in each hand. "Because I saved two for these guys."

"You are just too cute," he said, once again sliding his arms around her waist and pulling her close for a kiss. As they pulled apart, she pushed the gingerbread Jim and Pam together as if to make them kiss. "And such a dork," he laughed, before leaning in to kiss her once more.

--

"Morning Dwight," Jim said as he walked over to his desk from the coat rack.

"You said that yesterday, we don't need to do this every day. Just say good month at the start of the month and then we don't need to exchange pleasantries each day," Dwight scoffed as Jim placed his suit jacket on the back of his chair before pulling it out so he could sit down.

"Oh but then I'd miss our witty repartee each morning," Jim chided back as he switched his computer on.

"Fact. You are not witty."

"But you most definitely are Dwight."

"Idiot." 

Jim hit a few keys on his keyboard but nothing happened, the computer was still turned off. "Hey Dwight?"

"No Jim."

"Is your computer working?"  

"Yes. Why?" Dwight asked, moving to protectively cover his computer.

"Mine's not turning on. Can you pass me a spare order form?" Jim asked as he tried to turn the computer on again.

"What's wrong with yours?" Dwight asked suspiciously. 

"Oh nothing, I'm just out of them," Jim said innocently. "And I hurt my leg playing basketball last night, so I don't wanna have to walk over to get a bunch of new ones from the cupboard." 

"Fine," Dwight finally relented, opening his bottom drawer to retrieve an order form for Jim. "What? What is this?" he asked as he reached into the drawer.

"What's what Dwight? Oh would you look at that, it turned on," Jim said with a smile.

"Why is there a gingerbread man in my desk drawer?" he asked suspiciously. 

"How would I know? I literally just got here. Maybe someone dropped it in there or something? I'm sure there's a very reasonable explanation. Gingerbread men don't just appear from nowhere Dwight," Jim reasoned. 

"I suppose," Dwight conceded as he passed the order form over to Jim.

"Would you look at that, my pencil cup is missing. Can I borrow a pen please?" 

"May you borrow a pen is the correct phrasing."

"I'm sorry, may I borrow a pen please?" Jim repeated with an eye roll as he picked up the phone receiver. 

Dwight reached over to grab a pen from his pencil cup and jumped slightly when he found another gingerbread man nestled in between his pens and pencils. "What the?" he trailed off.

"What's up now?" Jim said, beginning to dial a number. 

"There's another gingerbread man."

"Dwight, I don't have time for this. I'm on a call," Jim said, a hint of annoyance to his voice. "Hello Mr Reece, it's Jim Halpert. How are you doing today?" he said into the phone as he watched Dwight frantically begin moving the items of his desk around.

"Where are you all coming from?" Dwight cried out as he found more gingerbread men hiding behind his monitor, under his phone, several between and inside the files of his top drawer and even one that had replaced the throwing star taped to the underside of his desk. Jim sat back in amazement as he watched Dwight turn his desk upside down looking for more of the cookies.

-- 

Jim opened the bathroom door and stood stunned in the doorframe at the sight before him. Dwight was up on his tiptoes trying to grab a mug from the back of the top shelf of the cupboard, and in front of him on the kitchen counter was every other mug that lived at Dunder Mifflin, other than the ones currently in use. "Dwight, what is going on?" Jim asked, clearly confused. There was no response, just some grunting from Dwight as he tried again to reach the last mug. "Dwight!" Jim shouted. 

Dwight was slightly startled, and turned around. "What?" he said. 

"What are you doing?" Jim asked again. 

"They're taking over the kitchen," Dwight whispered to him, his eyes darting wildly around the kitchen.

"Who are?" Jim whispered back, leaning closer towards Dwight.

Dwight lowered his voice even more and moved so that his face was an inch away from Jim's. "The gingerbread men." 

"Oh come on, Dwight, this again?" Jim whined, pushing his way past Dwight, but was stopped when Dwight put his hand on Jim's arm. Jim looked down at it and then up at Dwight. "You really think gingerbread men are taking over?" he whispered. 

"I know they are," Dwight said forcefully. "There was one on top of my lunch in the refrigerator, and when I went to make a coffee, there was one in my cup. I've checked the rest of the mugs and I found one more in my backup mug, and I'm trying to check my backup backup mug." 

"I'll get it for you, I'm significantly taller than you are," Jim said, pushing Dwight out of the way.

"No you're not, not...significantly taller than me," Dwight said to Jim's back. 

"Here you go," Jim said, handing Dwight the mug. They both peered inside it and each let out a small gasp when they saw a gingerbread man. "But that's impossible. Even you couldn't reach that high. How did it get in there?" 

"I told you, they're taking over," Dwight gritted out. 

--

"Night Dwight," Pam smiled as Dwight took his coat from the rack just after 5pm. He dropped it onto the floor and jumped up and down on it. "What are you doing?" Pam shrieked, standing up to peer over her desk. 

"They're in here Pam, I know they are," Dwight said, still jumping up and down.

"Who are?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

"The gingerbread men, Pam. The gingerbread men," he said, still jumping. 

"Why are you jumping though?" she asked, confused as to what Dwight was still doing. 

"I'm killing them Pam. If I crush them, they can't hurt me." 

"OK, I think you got them buddy. Wanna slow down on the jumping a little?" 

"Alright, fine," Dwight said reluctantly, with a final stamp on his coat. He picked it up and shook it before turning out the pockets, but to his dismay, or relief, didn't find anything.

"See, there was nothing in there. I think you're taking this a little far Dwight." 

"Not far enough. But at least they didn't figure out which was my coat," he said as he pulled his coat on. "Goodbye Pamela." 

"Night Dwight," she called as he turned to leave. "Oh wait, Dwight. It's raining. You forgot your umbrella." 

"Thank you," he said, walking back to retrieve it from the coat rack. "Oh no," he said as he grasped the umbrella by the middle. "No, no, no, no." Dwight quickly unfurled the umbrella and opened it, causing three gingerbread men to fall out onto the floor. He threw the umbrella onto the floor, grabbed his briefcase and ran out. 

Pam looked over to Jim with wide eyes and a smile, and he returned it with a lazy grin of his own. "Wanna watch from the conference room?" she asked. 

"Absolutely I do," he smiled back. 

They walked over to the window in the conference room and peered out through the blinds, just in time to see Dwight reach his car, holding his briefcase above his head for some sort of protection from the rain. He opened the door, threw his briefcase through to the passenger seat and climbed into the driver's seat, only to jump out again seconds later. Jim and Pam watched as Dwight swatted at his behind, before bending down and grabbing several gingerbread men from his seat and throwing them onto the ground, where he then proceeded to stamp on them as he screamed into the wet evening air. He finally climbed into his car and from the conference room, Jim and Pam could see him frantically searching the rest of the car from the inside. Eventually Dwight turned around and settled down in the driver's seat, and as he turned on the engine and set the windshield wipers to clear the rain away, they saw gingerbread men flying into the air, followed by Dwight's loud horn honking at them.

"Wow," Jim laughed from the conference room as Dwight screeched out of the parking lot. "I think we might have broken him." 

"Nice work," Pam said with a smile, as she passed Jim his Jim-gerbread man. She held her own one up in front of his. 

"Such a dork," he laughed as their gingerbread men high fived.