Lucille in Stars Hollow

Horse drawn sleighs and Bracebridge dinners

 Winter in Stars Hollow was a festival in itself. Not to mention all the other actual festivities taking place during the season. People like to go all out, mainly because Taylor will scold you if you don't. So that is how I ended up holding Mrs. Potato Heads lips, which were supposed to go on a snowman Lorelai, Rory, Lisa, and I were making.

"Lucy, put the Mrs. Potato Head on," Lorelai said.

"No!" Rory stopped. "Forget it. Just leave the other mouth."

"I don't know why were doing this anyway," Lisa murmured, gesturing over the snowman that looked like it belonged in a museum. "It's not like we're going to beat that one."

"Wow, looks like some people left their positive attitude at home!" Lorelai murmured. "But, also, that one," she pointed to the fancy snowman, "is wayyyy too fancy. It's over the top. Look, he's using fancy tools! Thats cheating!"

"I don't think there is anything in a snowman making challenge, in a small town, that is considered cheating," Rory pointed out. I nodded in agreement.

"It just screams, 'Oh! Look at me! I look like I belong in a statue garden!'" Lorelai huffed.

"I think that's the point of the competition."

"Omg," Lisa gasped. We all turned from our snowman to the man's. "He's power buffing."

"Oh, c'mon now! That's just wrong." Lorelai pouted.

I shook my head in disbelief. "We're up against the Michelangelo of snow."

"I give up," Lisa mumbled, throwing down the scarf for the snowman in her hand. I followed her away and Lorelai called after us, "Hey, come back! We still have a chance!"

I looked back just in time to see the head fall off of ours.

Friday night dinner was as dead as the animal we were eating. There was no talking and just silent munching as the clock ticked.

I cleared my throat at Lorelai. She looked up. I made a talking hand signal and she asked Richard, "So, Dad, what are your travel plans? You and Mom always go out of town around this time."

"Last year it was the Bahamas?" Rory piped in.

"Yes, we did," Emily confirmed flatly.

"So where are you going this year?" I asked, breathing a sigh of relief that the silence was over.

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

Rory pouted. "Why not?" Emily nodded over to Richard. So, I guess it was Mr. Grumpy over there that made the decisions.

"Oh, that's nice too—staying home."

Then Richard excused himself to make some calls. Lorelai sighed. "When is this awfulness with work going to resolve? He's miserable!"

Emily shook her head. "I don't know. He's so sensitive! He reads into everything."

Then Lorelai proceeded to tell a story when she called him fat or something and we were back in the silence.

For a while now, Lorelai and Sookie had been working on this dinner for a group of rich people who bought out the inn. Apparently they were snowed in and the dinner was off.

So now, Lorelai, Rory, Lisa, and I were crammed in at a little table at Luke's listening to Sookie talk about the dinner in a way that brought all of our moods down.

"I made mountains of prune tarts and diced pumpkins until my hands tuned orange," she showed us her hands. "I have pumpkin hands!" Then she retracted and went back to pouting.