"Where are your plaid shirts?" Pam shouted as she rifled through Jim's closet one late December evening.

"Hmm?" Jim murmured as he walked into the small room.

"Your plaid shirts. Where are they? I can't find them," she said as she looked under a pile of t-shirts.

"I gave them to Goodwill like two years ago," he replied with a shrug.

"What!" she exclaimed. "Why would you do that?"

"Because I haven't worn them in at least five years," he laughed.

"What are you talking about?" she asked him with a puzzled look on her face.  

"Pam, when would I have worn them?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

"At Christmas!" 

"Christmas day last year I wore a t-shirt!" he exclaimed back. 

"Well, it was unseasonably warm," she bristled. "And we had a lot of people. The room was warm." Jim raised his eyebrows at her knowing that wasn't the truth. Since they'd moved to Austin just over seven years ago, all their recent Christmases had been in a much warmer climate than they were used to. "Well, you wore them in Scranton."

"We haven't had Christmas in Scranton for at least five, no six, years."

"No, we were at your mom's," she paused to think, "three years ago."

"No we weren't."

"Yes we were."

"No," he insisted, "we weren't. You were pregnant with Jack, so we definitely didn't go."

"Oh," Pam replied, mentally doing the math in her head. "Well, we'll have to go and get you some new shirts."

"Why? I've got enough," he shrugged. Pam turned and gave him a look. "What?" 

"It's Christmas, Jim. You need to wear a plaid shirt."

"Ok crazy," he laughed as he turned and left the closet. 

Pam rolled her eyes and went back to pulling various outfits for Jim to pack into his suitcase. She knew if she left it to him to pack his own clothes, Jim would be wearing the same three shirts and two pairs of boxer briefs for their whole stay. She wanted Jim in plaid shirts. She wanted all of her kids in matching Christmas sweaters. She wanted to drink eggnog and eat sugar cookies in front of a roaring fire. She wanted to watch Jim and the kids have a snowball fight with his brothers and their kids. She wanted to build a snowman as a family and then go inside for hot cocoa. Pam wanted to have a perfect white Christmas. 

And she couldn't do that in Texas where it was currently 61 degrees and there hadn't been more than a few snowflakes in all the years combined since they'd moved.

Pam had been counting down the weeks and days until she'd be getting her perfect Christmas. It wasn't that the Christmases over the last six or so years hadn't been good, because they had. It was just that they weren't the Christmases that Pam had grown up with. There was no bundling up in hats and scarves to go ice skating. There was no sipping hot cocoa by a log fire. There were no badly built snowmen in the yard. Instead, the Halperts would wander around Christmas markets in their light jackets, meet Santa wearing sunglasses or enjoy a nice iced coffee as they watched a Christmas movie. It was still Christmas, but the magic just wasn't there. 

So while Jim went about his everyday life in December, Pam was planning how she was going to make this the best Christmas her little family had had since their move to Austin. She'd bought them all matching Christmas pyjamas and sweaters. Tickets for ice skating, The Nutcracker and for the kids to meet Santa had all been purchased. Pam had organised a festive girls pamper day for her mom, Penny, and Cece. And she had meticulously planned out Christmas day to make sure they could see the Halperts, her mom and her dad. 

Not that Jim knew any of this.

So when he walked into the kitchen the following morning, and found Pam up to her eyeballs in wrapping paper, he was a little surprised by what else he found. "What's all this?" he asked as he picked up a set of matching Christmassy bathrobes.

"Oh, that's for my pamper day," she said as she wrapped up a photo frame, not looking up at Jim.

"What pamper day?" he asked as he put down the bathrobes and picked up a doll. 

"Oh it's just for the girls," she replied as she added a third piece of tape to the gift wrap and then moved onto the next present. "Don't worry about it." 

"Oh well that's nice. What are me and the boys meant to do?" he asked with a slightly sarcastic tone. 

"You'll be taking them sledding, and then me and Cece will meet you later to build a snowman," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

"Got it all planned out don't you Beesly," he grinned at her as she carried on busily wrapping. 

"Something like that," she smiled up at him, tongue poking between her teeth. "Oh did you get some plaid shirts yet?" 

"Not yet," Jim began, but Pam cut him off. 

"But we're flying tomorrow!" she shrieked, her face completely aghast. 

"I was going to say, I'll pick some up at the airport or when we get to Scranton. It's no biggie." 

"It is a biggie, Jim! I want everything to be perfect." she almost screamed.

"Woah, woah, woah," he soothed. He kneeled down next to the chair Pam was sitting in and took her hand, making her look down at where he was holding her. "What's going on?"  

"I just," she sighed, and flicked her eyes to meet his, "I just want a perfect Christmas. Like it should be." 

"Well, I might be biased, but I think all of our Christmases are pretty perfect," he said with a lopsided smile. 

"No, I know, they have been. But they're just not," she paused. "We haven't had a white Christmas in forever."

"Ohh, so you want treetops glistening and sleigh bells in the snow?" he joked.

"Stooop," Pam whined, swatting Jim on the arm. "Just, you know. Like when I was a kid and we'd go ice skating all wrapped up in scarves and gloves. Or how my mom would always have hot cocoa waiting after we built snowmen in the front yard. And remember Cece's first Christmas and we all had matching pyjamas? Why haven't we had matching pyjamas again?" 

"Because we have more important things going on?" he shrugged.

"I really want matching pyjamas. And cocoa. And ice skating. And you in a plaid shirt," she pouted. 

"Well, you better make sure you've been nice this year," he said, pulling her to her feet and wrapping his arms around her waist. "I heard Santa doesn't give the naughty girls what they want," he whispered, leaning down to kiss her. 

Pam relented for a second and melted into Jim's kiss, before she pulled back slightly. "This is really important to me, Jim. I really want everything to just be-" 

"Perfect, I know," he said, finishing her sentence. "I promise you, Beesly. You will get your perfect white Christmas," he said with another kiss.

-- 

"May your days be merry and bright and may all your Christmases be white," Pam whispered to herself as she wrote a Christmas card to her in-laws later that afternoon. She signed the whole family's names, blew slightly across the drying ink and then folded the card closed. She smiled down at the front where a snow covered forest dotted with silver glitter and a tiny log cabin lay before her. She sighed a happy sigh, picked the card up and wiggled it into the envelope. She wrote ‘mom & dad' on the front and then took the next card from the pile.

"So what do you think?" Jim proudly announced as he walked into the kitchen. He held his arms out and twirled around so that Pam could appreciate his new plaid shirt.

"Very nice babe," she smiled, before opening the card and picking up her pen again.

"No, no, I think I need more than a very nice," he said, taking the pen out of her hand and then pulling Pam to her feet. "I'm living out your lumberjack fantasy here Beesly." 

"And what makes you think I have a lumberjack fantasy?" she asked with raised eyebrows, trying to bite a grin back. 

"The book on your night stand, what's it called? The one with the lumberjack and the lady in the suit. The Farm or something?" 

"Jim, you know what it's called, I saw you reading it the other day when I was trying to pack."

"Fine. Christmas Farm," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I've seen you biting your lip when you read it," he smirked as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Stop!" she whined trying to pull away, but Jim held her closer.

"It's really ok that you have a thing for lumberjacks," he grinned, "especially now I look like one."

Pam rolled her eyes this time. "Ok, yes, you look like a very sexy lumberjack. But I really need to finish writing these cards. So can you go and take that off and pack it please?" 

"Alright, alright," Jim relented, finally letting his arms drop from around where they had been encasing Pam. "I'll meet you in bed in like ten minutes?" he suggested, and Pam nodded. 

Forty five minutes later, Pam finally made it upstairs to bed. As she pushed open the door, she caught sight of a bare chested Jim leaning against the headboard reading her book. "Catching up on a bit of reading are you?" she giggled as she quietly closed the door behind her. 

"Just making sure I can live up to your fantasy is all, Beesly," he replied, closing the book and putting it on his nightstand. 

"It's gonna be hard," she said, trying to keep a straight face. 

"It already is," he said with a wiggle of his eyebrows, making Pam laugh and shake her head. She started to get undressed and sat down on the edge of the bed to pull her socks off. Jim crawled behind her and pulled her hair to the side. "The lady on the front desk said there was only one bed left. I'm ok with sharing but if you want I can sleep on the floor," he whispered as he kissed her neck, trying to get into character. 

"No Jim!" Pam gasped, jumping off the bed. "They were still on the road and the snow was coming down really fast," she moaned. "I didn't know they were going to have to stop and there would only be one bed."

"Oh come on," Jim laughed. "It's so predictable. It's the oldest trope in this kind of book." 

"And how would you know about this kind of book?" she challenged with a laugh. 

"I, you know, it was," he stumbled. "Larisa always had these kinds of books laying around when we were growing up," he finally rushed out with pink cheeks.

"Oh and you just happened to pick them up and read them did you?" she teased. 

"Alright, that's enough out of you," he said, tugging Pam onto the bed. 

-- 

"Get up, we're late," Pam shouted with a gasp the next morning as she woke up. 

"Hmm?" Jim murmured, still very much asleep. 

"Jim, get up," she repeated as she pulled the covers back and jumped out of bed. 

"Unless it's 3pm, we're not late," he groaned, pulling the comforter back on top of him. "This isn't the start of Home Alone." He could hear Pam shuffling around their room in the dark and huffed at his interrupted sleep that he clearly wasn't going to be getting back to. He glanced over at the alarm clock on his nightstand. 6.42am. "Pam! It's not even 7am, will you get back into bed?"

"No, we've got to get everything ready and finish packing and get the kids up and clean the kitchen and-" 

"Why do we need to clean the kitchen?"

"So that it's not disgusting when we come home again next week," came Pam's muffled reply as she tugged a sweater over her head. "Did you message Tom to remind him about picking us up?" she asked Jim but didn't even wait for his reply. "I'll just message him now." She grabbed her phone from her nightstand and noticed some notifications on the screen. "Oh my mom messaged saying the snow is really coming down now!" she squealed giddily. "Oh wait, there's also a weather warning in Scranton. Looks like it's gonna be a really snowy couple of days. I can't wait," she smiled, not quite understanding what the weather warning meant. She quickly dismissed the notification, messaged Tom and then turned her attention back to Jim. "Get up."

"Ok," he sighed, "but you get to hold the sick bag for Philip on the plane this time, not me."

For the next few hours, Pam scuttled around the house as she finished packing the suitcases, tidied every room to within an inch of its life, packed snacks and iPads and toys into each of the kids backpacks, and checked and rechecked that they had everything they needed. The one thing she didn't check was her phone. 

"Ok, I think we're ready to go," she suddenly announced as she walked into the living room where Jim was watching a movie with the three kids or as Pam so affectionately put it ‘staying out of the way'. "You checked us in yesterday, right?" she asked Jim as she grabbed the remote control to turn the TV off. 

"I definitely meant to," Jim grimaced. 

"Jiiim," she groaned, reaching for her phone. "You had one jo..." she trailed off. "No, no, no," she whispered to herself, shaking her head.

"What's up?" 

"The weather warning increased and it's severe now." She tapped furiously on her phone. "No, no, no," she groaned again. Jim stood up and walked over to where Pam was standing so he could peer at her phone screen. "Look," she said, tilting the phone so he could see. "It says they've closed the airport in Scranton because of the snow." Jim took the phone from her and read the message about the airport closure, before flicking open the Safari app on Pam's phone. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Finding us new flights," he said, not taking his eyes off the phone.

"It's Christmas Eve, we're never going to find a flight that's going to get us there."  

"Just gimme a few minutes, ok?" 

"Ok," she sighed, and then went to sit with the kids who had turned the TV back on, but she kept her eyes firmly on Jim as he tapped away on her phone. 

"Alright," he announced a few minutes later. "It looks like all the airports around Scranton are shut, but we could get a flight tonight to JFK and then drive. Well, two flights and then drive. But I don't think we'd be there before tomorrow morning." 

"No," she moaned, standing up. "You said it yourself this morning, this isn't Home Alone." She elbowed Jim and took her phone back so that she could try to salvage the situation. "What about if we drive?" she asked.

"Babe, it's like a 25 hour drive, and that's without stopping. Even if we left right this second, we're not getting there before the 27th." 

"We could take shifts? I'll drive while you sleep, then we don't need to stop," she said looking up at Jim with hopeful eyes. 

"Even if we somehow managed to get there in less than 24 hours, the roads are gonna be crazy. If the airports are shut, we probably can't drive. And then we'd be stuck in some motel on the highway for Christmas." He paused for a second. "Although, there would probably just be one room left with a small bed. Actually, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be stuck in your book," he smirked. 

"With three kids in tow?" she said, raising an eyebrow. 

The smile on Jim's face dropped. "Yeah, let's just leave the Christmas movies and books to the professionals." He pulled Pam into a hug. "I'm really sorry Beesly, I don't think we're gonna be able to get back for Christmas." He kissed the top of her head. 

"I know," she sighed sadly as she looked up at him. 

"Your white Christmas was just too white I guess," he tried to joke. 

"I know," she repeated with a small laugh through her nose. She rested her head back on Jim's chest. "So what should we do now?"  

"Leave it to me," he said as he started to pull away from Pam. "You sit and watch the rest of the movie with the kids, and I'll sort everything. Ok?" 

"Ok," she said slowly, eyeing Jim suspiciously.

"It's gonna be perfect, I promise," he smiled as he left the room.

-- 

It was three hours later when Jim finally returned and walked into the living room with three pizza boxes. "Where've you been?" Pam asked as she stood to take the boxes from Jim. 

"Don't even worry about it," he said with a shake of his head. "Who's hungry?" he asked the kids, causing them to jump up off the couch and start shouting. Pam placed the boxes on the coffee table and the kids immediately started grabbing slices. Jim reached over them to take a piece for himself, and just as he was about to take the first bite, he realised Pam was watching him. "What?" he asked, with his pizza inches from his mouth. 

"Well, where have you been? What's going on?" she rushed out. "I'm gonna need to go to the grocery store and get a ham and eggnog and we need more chocolate for the kids." 

"All in hand Beesly," he said, before taking a bite. "I told you it's going to be perfect." He took another bite, and Pam slowly did the same, keeping her eyes on her husband. After he finished his first slice, he grabbed another, and one for Pam too. "Why don't you finish this, then head up to the bathroom. Take a couple of hours. Me and the kids will be fine. And we'll see you later for some Christmas Eve fun." 

"What have you done?" she asked, her tone still suspicious. 

"Just making sure my wife has the perfect Christmas," he smiled back around the slice of pizza. 

Pam made her way up the stairs, finishing the pizza slice as she went. She pushed open her bedroom door, holding her breath as if something might jump out at her but nothing did. She walked over to the bathroom, and as she opened the door, the smell of cinnamon and spice plus the soft sound of Christmas songs hit her. She gasped, her hands covering her face, as she took in the sight before her. The lights were dimmed and Jim had placed scented candles on every available surface. There was a new wooden rack stretched across the piping hot bubble bath holding a plate of sugar cookies, a small bottle of Champagne and a glass, a candy cane striped facemask, various pots of Christmas scented creams, her book, and a dish of red and green M&Ms. Her usual towel had been replaced with a red and white striped one, and a pair of Christmas pyjamas and cozy socks were folded neatly on the top of the hamper. Pam quickly undressed and slipped into the warm tub, slinking right down to let the hot water cover her body.

She stayed in the tub for over an hour, occasionally nudging the faucet with her toe to top up the hot water, before she finally decided it was time to get out. Rather than rushing down, Pam spent time drying her hair and applying the new creams that Jim had bought her, before putting on the new Christmas pyjamas and cozy socks. As she opened the bathroom door, she realised that her bedroom now had a small Christmas tree in the corner. String lights were draped over the curtain pole and the headboard, and the bed sheets had been changed for a red and green check print.

As Pam left the bedroom and wandered downstairs, noting the green garland that was now running down the bannister, the next scent to greet her was gingerbread accompanied by laughter coming from the kitchen. She poked her head around the large doorway and saw her little family full of laughter, wearing matching pyjamas, covered in flour while dancing to Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree. "What's going on here?" she smiled as she walked towards them. 

"Gingerbread men!" Philip screamed at Pam excitedly. "Look, it's me!" 

"Great job buddy," she grinned before looking over to where Jim was helping Jack with his gingerbread man. "Thanks for the bath," she smiled, tiptoeing up to give Jim a chaste kiss. 

"I know it wasn't even half of what you were going to be having for your girls' pamper day but I wanted you to have a little bit of ‘me' time." 

"Thank you," she whispered again with another kiss. "So are we making the whole family?" she asked the kids. 

"Yeah!" they all shouted back.

"Dad's already made you," Cece said, pointing to a small gingerbread man with a pink cardigan splodged onto it. 

"Oh you decided to go with a ten year old fashion choice did you?" Pam laughed as she carefully picked up the cookie. 

"Well, she goes with this little fella," Jim replied, holding up another gingerbread man, one with a wonky blue tie that was bleeding into what Pam assumed was meant to be a light blue shirt.

"Aww, you tried so hard babe," she giggled. She put the gingerbread Pam down and that's when she noticed the rest of the kitchen. The small amount of Christmas decorations that had been on the counter and walls had been upgraded. There was a new large tree by the breakfast nook and the table was covered in a huge display of appetisers. "Where did all this come from?" 

"Santa's elves helped a little," Jim grinned. "As did all those Instagram videos you're always watching." 

"Oooh," Pam nodded, "so that's why the bath looked so good." 

Jim blushed and looked down at his cookie. He cleared his throat slightly. "So, uh, we've got the gingerbread, and all the appetisers for dinner. And then I thought we'd watch a couple of Christmas movies with the kids tonight, and then after they go to bed, you can watch as many Hallmark movies as you can before you fall asleep."

Pam placed both her hands on Jim's cheeks and pulled him down for a kiss. "I love you." She kissed him again. "Even though it's not a white Christmas, it's definitely a perfect Christmas." This time Jim bent down to kiss Pam. 

"Ewww," Philip shouted when he saw his parents kissing and his siblings joined in. 

Jim and Pam pulled apart with slightly embarrassed smiles. "Well, it's not Christmas yet," he said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"It's still Christmas Eve!" Cece excitedly said. "We need to put out the cookies and milk for Santa!"

"Oh I heard he wanted a glass of my good whiskey this year," Jim mumbled and Pam nudged him in the ribs.

"Huh?" Cece asked, looking up at her parents. 

"Let's maybe leave Santa two cookies tonight, ok?" Pam quickly replied.

"Ok!" Philip shouted and ran out of the kitchen with a cookie in each hand. 

"Not yet bud," Jim trailed off as he watched his son skip to the living room. "I'll go get them later," he said with a wave of his hand towards the other room. 

"I'll get them!" Cece shouted, running after her brother, leaving Jack sitting at the table on his own covered in icing.  

Jim smiled at the mess in the kitchen and then turned his attention back to Pam. "I'm sure Santa is going to bring you everything you want tomorrow." He leaned down to whisper in her ear. "I heard you've been a very good girl," he said, biting her earlobe ever so slightly.

"Jiim," Pam moaned and squirmed away slightly from him, motioning towards Jack with raised eyebrows. She walked over to wipe up the toddler. After a moment, she covered Jack's ears and looked back over at Jim. "Maybe Mrs Claus will stop by with your Christmas present tonight," she said with a little blush before she continued wiping up their son. 

"What's dad getting tonight?" Philip asked running back into the kitchen and causing Jim to choke on nothing. 

"Nothing, uh, nothing," Jim coughed. 

"Maybe a little something," Pam whispered as she walked behind Jim, making him cough again.

Before they could carry on their little back and forth, the doorbell rang. "Who's that?" Pam asked, but Jim just shrugged with a look that said he knew exactly who it was. 

"Why don't you go and answer the door," he suggested with a nod of his head. 

Pam narrowed her eyes at him and tried to hide her smile as she walked to the front door. As she opened it, she was greeted by five people dressed in traditional clothes, complete with bonnets, fur stoles, top hats and crinoline skirts. Before she could say a word to them, the group started singing Silent Night. As Pam listened to them, she noticed that her driveway wasn't behind them, but instead there was a wintery forest scene, complete with snow on the ground. Or at least something white and spongey looking on the floor. She turned around to see Jim walking towards her with his own smile staring back at her. "What did you do?" she whispered as he slipped his arm around her shoulder and she leaned into his chest.

"It's nothing," he murmured into her hair. 

"It's not nothing!" she gasped, looking up at Jim. "How did you do this?" 

"It's just a backdrop and some cushion filling, it's no biggie," he shrugged. 

"Stop," she said, putting her hand on his chest. "This is amazing, thank you."

The family stood in the doorway listening to the carolers sing two more songs, and Pam noticed herself start to shiver in the cool night air. When she looked to the side, she realised it was courtesy of a large fan blowing towards them. She ran her hands over her arms and Jim pulled her closer to him to warm her up. A few minutes later, the singing group nodded at the Halperts and bid them goodnight. As soon as Jim closed the door, Pam was in his arms again. "Thank you," she murmured into his chest. "That was really incredible." Jim smiled down at her. "I haven't seen any real carolers since I was little."

Jim shrugged bashfully. "Come on, let's get the kids to bed. We've got to set everything up for them and we'll have an early start tomorrow. I can't imagine the kids are gonna let us sleep past five," he grinned.

-- 

They managed to make it to ten past five before Philip bounded into their room. Jim and Pam blearily dragged themselves out of bed and downstairs to watch their kids tear into the many presents they'd each received. Once they finished their first cups of coffee, Jim handed Pam her gift, which turned out to be a jewellery box similar to the one she'd received when she was seven, only inside this time was a pair of diamond earrings and a matching necklace. After profusely thanking him, Pam gave him a new watch, tickets to Pearl Jam, and the bike that he'd been wanting to get himself. With every member of the Halpert household thoroughly overwhelmed by their gifts by 6.30am, Jim announced that it was time to head out. 

Although the weather was meant to get up to 66 degrees later in the day, at not even 7am, it was a chilly 41 degrees and so the Halperts were bundled up in their warmer jackets, complete with hats and scarves. "Where are we going?" Pam asked as Jim drove and she fiddled with the air conditioning in the car to try and warm her family up.

"Just another few minutes," he promised.

"I'm hungry," whined Philip.

"Me too," shouted the other two kids from the back. 

"Ok, we're almost there," Jim replied as he started to indicate.

"Jim, this is the Four Seasons," Pam marvelled as he began to turn. "What are we doing?"

"Just wait," he smiled. He pulled into the parking lot and found a space, and after putting the car into park, he ran around the car opening the doors and unbuckling car seats. "This way guys," he said to the kids, picking Jack up and taking Philip's hand in his. Pam and Cece held hands and followed the men, shivering slightly in the cool morning air. Jim led them to the large ice rink which was closed, but pushed the gate to the area open.

"Babe, what are you doing?" Pam hissed through gritted teeth.

"Just follow me," he assured her with an easy smile. As if out of nowhere, a man in a black fleece zip-up sweater appeared and Jim had a quick conversation with him. "We're just over here," he said to his family, and started to lead them over to a small open fronted cabin.

"Jim," Pam hissed again. "What's going on?" she asked as she looked around the empty venue. 

"Breakfast, Beesly," he smiled as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Pam looked past him and saw that inside the cabin was a low coffee table covered with bagels, donuts, a fruit platter, and a hot-serving dish that was holding eggs, bacon, and waffles. A second table held a pot of coffee, cups and glasses of juice, while a champagne bucket was perched on the side. Fluffy white bearskins covered white chairs and were draped with large blankets. "This is," Pam began, but trailed off, completely speechless.

"I thought everyone was hungry," Jim said, plopping Jack down on one of the chairs and ushering the other kids to sit down.

"How did you do this?" Pam marvelled as she took a seat and watched Jim open the bottle of champagne.

"I know a guy," he mysteriously shrugged as he poured a glass and handed it to Pam. After pouring his own, Jim took a seat and reached for a plate to start filling it with breakfast food. "So once we've had some food," he announced to his family after a bite of bacon, "we're gonna go ice skating ok?"

"Yeah!!" all the kids excitedly shouted.

"What time does it open?" Pam asked, looking down at her watch. 

"Anytime we want," Jim said. "It's ours til ten."

"What?" she choked on a piece of scrambled egg.

"We've got the whole rink to ourselves," he said and then took another bite of his bacon. "Quick, let's eat!" 

The family ate and drank until they were full, or as full as three excited children could be, and then put on the skates that Jim had pre-arranged. On unsteady feet, the Halperts made their way onto the ice. Jim took Cece's hands and skated backwards, helping her to stay upright. Pam grabbed a penguin skating aid for Jack, and held Philip's hand, and they all slowly skated around the ice. 

After twenty minutes, everyone was feeling confident enough to let go of hands and skate a little faster. Pam started to pick up speed and waved at her family from the other side of the rink. Jim then decided to try to catch her, causing her to laugh and squeal as she tried to get away from him. She tried her best to skate faster, egged on by shouts of ‘go mommy' from the kids, but Jim easily caught her. On wobbly legs, Pam allowed herself to be pulled to Jim where he wrapped his arms around her and bent down to kiss her, despite the ‘gross' and ‘yuck' coming from the other side of the ice.

"This is so amazing, thank you," Pam smiled up at Jim as they pulled apart.

"It's just the beginning, Beesly," he grinned back. "Remember the first time we went skating?" he asked her. 

"Michael's birthday?" she answered, happy memories of that day instantly giving her face a little flush. 

"Yeah," he beamed back at her as they started slowly skating together hand in hand. "Was a pretty good day, huh?"

"It really was," she blushed. "I thought about that day for so long," she sighed.

"Me too," he nodded and squeezed her hand a little tighter. "Buuut you couldn't catch me then, and you can't catch me now," he joked. He gave her a quick kiss and then sped off, leaving Pam to try and chase him. She never did quite manage to catch him. 

Another twenty minutes of skating and everyone was suitably exhausted. As they all made their way back to the cabin to change back into their shoes, Pam realised the breakfast food had been replaced by a hot cocoa bar and a s'mores station, complete with a mini fire pit. "Oh my god," she whispered.

"This is part of the whole white christmas thing right?" he asked. "Cocoa by a, albeit small, fire?" 

"It's perfect," she said with watery eyes. 

Jim set about getting marshmallows toasted for the kids, and Pam began pouring the hot chocolate into cups and topping them with dollops of fresh whipped cream and sprinkles. Before long, everyone was covered in sticky marshmallows and had chocolate moustaches.  

"I feel sick," Philip moaned as he tried to eat another s'more. 

"Ok, that's enough for you buddy," Jim said, prying the gooey treat out of his son's hand. "Probably about time we head back home?" 

"Yeah," Pam agreed, somewhat sadly. 

"Don't you worry Beesly, the day isn't finished yet," he smiled.

-- 

When they arrived home, Jim ushered everyone into the TV room where a Christmas makeover had apparently taken place while the family was out. A huge mattress was on the floor, and Christmas blankets and cushions covered every inch of it as well as the couch. Pots of popcorn, Christmas candy, sugar cookies and glasses of eggnog had been arranged on the coffee table, and the TV was paused with the title screen of Home Alone on it. Pam could only smile and shake her head at Jim as she slipped under one of the blankets and reached for a glass of eggnog.

"Ok?" Jim asked her.

"Perfect," she smiled, for what seemed like the twentieth time that day.

Despite gorging themselves on all the various treats so far, the kids started to moan that they were hungry for lunch as the movie finished. "Crap, we didn't go shopping," Pam suddenly realised sitting bolt upright from under her snuggly blanket fort.

"I think there was maybe some pizza left from yesterday in the living room," Jim tried to lie, but Pam caught it. 

"Oh really?" she said with her eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, maybe you should go look," he nodded towards the living room. 

Pam pushed the blankets off of her and walked through to the living-cum-dining room and gasped. Laid out on the dining table was a Christmas feast like she'd only ever seen in Good Housekeeping magazine. The table had been elegantly set with a sparkling white china set and cutlery that she'd never seen before, with white tapered candles and fresh green garlands running down the centre of the table. A huge ham sat to one side of the table, while an equally enormous joint of beef sat on the other end, with every side dish imaginable in between the two meats. Just as she was about to turn around to look for Jim, she felt him press up against her back and slide his arms around her waist.

"This is crazy," she whispered as if she was afraid she'd disrupt the perfect scene in front of her. 

"We gotta eat," he shrugged. "And it's Christmas after all. We gotta make sure it's classy." 

Pam snort-laughed at his reply. "Yeah, our kids are definitely going to make this a classy meal. Oh god, should we get their plastic plates out? I don't want them to break this china. Where did it even come from?" 

"The fewer questions you ask the better," he said, before pressing a kiss to her head and calling the kids in for lunch. 

With everyone seated at the table, Jim began to carve the meats as Pam spooned various side dishes onto all of the kids plates, making sure that they all had enough vegetables, even though they inevitably wouldn't get eaten. She was so preoccupied with making sure that everyone had enough food and that they were eating properly and not just dropping things on the floor, and jumping up to help Jack eat his mash potato, that she hadn't really sat down herself to eat.

"Pam, just sit and eat ok?" Jim said, his own plate almost half empty.

"No, I know," she relented, finally taking her seat. Her fork was halfway to her mouth with a tender piece of beef on it when she noticed the window. "Is it," she paused and put the fork down. "Is it snowing?" 

"Oh would you look at that," he said and then popped a sprout into his mouth. "Huh." 

"How is it snowing?" she grinned at him.

"It think it's called weather, Beesly. You know, there's rain, sun. Sometimes it gets real windy too," he said with a straight face which earned him a balled up napkin to the face from Pam. "Well go on then," he said, tilting his head backwards to the front door.

Pam smiled and then ran for the door, closely followed by all three kids. She threw the front door open and marvelled at the sight before her. Not only was it snowing all over the front yard, but what had previously been a lawn and driveway, was now a white wonderland. She stretched her hand out to catch some of the falling snow and as it melted on her skin into a tiny wet dot, she realised it was cold. "Ok lets get some coats on, huh?" she said to the kids. "And shoes," she called after them as they ran to get dressed. 

"I guess there's no point asking how you did this, is there?" she grinned as Jim walked over to her. 

"Nope," he smiled with a shake of his head. "Merry Christmas, Beesly," he said as he bent down to kiss her.

"Thank you," she breathed against his mouth. "I love you."

"Come on, let's get out there." 

By the time Pam had put her sneakers on and zipped up her jacket, the kids were already trying to roll a large ball of snow into position to make a snowman. They would have succeeded if it weren't for the fact that Jim had started to throw snowballs at them. 

"Get him!" Cece shouted as she picked up a handful of snow and tried to throw it at her father.

"No like this," Philip showed her as he patted a snowball together and then tried to throw it, although it didn't go far. 

"Like this guys," Pam said, walking over to them and scooping up enough snow to make a larger ball that, with enough force, managed to hit Jim in the chest. "Yes!" she squealed with a fist pump as she jumped in the air. But before her feet were barely back on the floor, a snowball hit her in the head. "Come on guys, let's go!" she said to the kids, scooping up snow as they went.

Jim was no match for the rest of the family, and soon ended up on his back in the snow, laughing as his kids climbed on top of him. Pam lay down next to him and reached for his hand. She placed her gloved hand in his and squeezed a little so that he looked over at her.

"Thank you," she mouthed at him, causing Jim to wiggle under the weight of the kids to move closer to Pam to kiss her. 

"You're welcome," he whispered. "I know it wasn't quite what you were dreaming of with the white Christmas and everything, but I hope it was ok."

"It couldn't have been more perfect," she smiled, feeling the cold of the snow beneath her back. "Best Christmas ever."