Pointdexter: A Swooning Over Stan-fiction

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Christmas with the Pines

Christmas at the Shack was an experience that Alice wasn't anticipating. While the Pines were not practicing Judaism, they were still Jewish, and she didn't know much about it.

Dipper stood by the front counter, sorting through a stack of mail while Alice and Mabel sat on the floor, wrapping leftover presents. The twins were excited about the holiday, but there was a hint of curiosity in their gazes. Stan had vanished into his office to take care of 'some business' leaving the twins and Alice alone in the gift shop.

"So why are we wrapping here instead of the living room?" Alice asked Mabel, tape sticking to her fingers as she put the finishing touches on Ford's present. "Is there some Jewish holiday secret I'm not allowed to see?"

Mabel looked up from the present she was deftly wrapping, a goofy smile written across her chubby-cheeked face.

"Na," She replied with a laugh, refocusing on the present. "It's just that Grunkle Stan turns the den into a 'wrapping' sanctuary' during Christmas. He says it's the only way for us to maintain the 'sanctity of Christmas surprise'. But really, I think he just likes having his own personal fortress without us sneaking up on him."

"Hmm, makes sense," Alice hummed, peeling the tape from her fingers and playfully sticking them to Mabel's bright green Christmas sweater. "Do you guys open presents at night or something? Or..."

She paused, pursing her lips as Mabel giggled and waved her arm, trying to dislodge the tape.

"I know you do presents, you're wrapping them. But my family always opened them on Christmas morning. It's five and I'm a little antsy."

"We do both!" Mabel grinned enthusiastically. "We got our 'Christmas Gifts' which is the fancy word for Santa and everyone else, that we opened in the morning. Then, we've got our 'Hanukka gifts' which are from the grunkles. And we open those at night."

"My Christmas gifts are now Hanukka gifts," Alice said with a nod and a slight shrug, refocusing on the bow she was trying around Stan's gift. "Good to know."

Alice set the wrapped piles of books to the side with the other gifts she'd wrapped that morning. Mabel and Dipper's had been wrapped before she'd arrived at the shack, with only one gift left to wrap. Shifting, Alice reached into her bag and withdrew the smooth black box with Ford's gift, quickly starting to wrap.

"It's already five," Alice commented, glancing longly toward the kitchen. "Is Ford working on dinner or..."

"No, Grunkle Ford isn't cooking," Dipper chuckled, still sorting through the mail. "And trust me, you don't want him cooking anyway. He's as clueless in the kitchen as he is in romantic situations"

"You'd be shocked at how wrong you are," Alice said, rolling her eyes at the boy, folding the creased of the paper over the black box. "He's gotten better since he and Stan got back from sailing."

"Ford? Cooking? Better?" Dipper repeated incredulously, shock written across his face. "Are you are it's the same Ford we know and love?"

"I think he missed my joke," Alice chuckled, turning her attention to Mabel and fixing the paper with a piece of tape. Mabel laughed, leaning over and bumping her shoulder against Alice's, still trying to get the tape off her sweater.

"Yeah, Dipper doesn't get a lot of sarcasm," She agreed, giggling as she glanced at her brother.

"Hey, I get sarcasm just fine," Dipper protested, turning his glare to his sister. "I just don't think that Ford's cooking skills are anything to brag about."

"I was talking about his romantic skills," Alice clarified, removing the tape from Mabel's sweater and crumpling it in her hand. "I would know more about that."