A little over a year had passed since Eleven had closed the gate and ended the Upside Down threat in hawkins once and for all. They had gradually gone back to their normal lives as Will recovered from his possession. While she had to go back into hiding for about a year after, they had all visited her several times, with Mike visiting the most. Almost everyday after school, he would bike to the woods and walk to the cabin where he was greeted with an excited squeal and a hug from El. A lot of these visits had involved tutoring sessions for her, and in September Hopper had enrolled her in Hawkins High with the rest of them. Their party had grown now with the additions of Eleven and Max, who had thankfully reconciled. Both of them had proven to be quite the D&D players with some instructions, and were now valued members of the team.

It was now December, and a foot and a half of snow covered the ground in Hawkins. School had been canceled for the day, and all of the party members agreed to meet up in an hour for a day filled for snowball fights, snow angels, snowman building contests, and hot cocoa. Hopper still had to go into work, so he got Eleven all dressed into black snow pants, a purple winter coat, a purple hat, and purple mittens. He let her wear an old pair of his boats stuffed with socks, which surprisingly worked well. They hopped into his car and drove slowly over to the Wheeler's household. Eleven marveled at the glistening trees and mounds of fluffy white powder. While she had seen it when she had lived in the woods for a month, she hadn't had time to really admire its beauty. Now, she was going to experience it with all of her friends. Mike had been going on and on about all the activities they would have to do when it finally snowed for months.

They pulled up in the cul de sac and she saw five figures all bundled up in snow gear playing in the Wheelers front yard. One of them pointed at the approaching jeep and they all began to run towards it. Hopper stopped and she leaned over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek before jumping out of the car to meet her friends. "Be careful!" he called after her before driving off into the snow.

"Hi El!" she heard Mike call as they ran to meet each other. Much to his embarrassment, he tripped in the snow and fell face first into it about 5 feet from her. While everyone else laughed their heads off at his misfortune, Eleven carefully stopped in front of him and crouched down to look at him. He raised his head out of the cold snow and looked at her.

"Are you okay?" she asked with a concerned look on her face.

"Yeah, I just tripped cause these boots are too big."

She helped him up and he stood by her as the rest of the group continued laughing at them.

"Oh man Wheeler, you shoulda seen your face when you tripped!" Max said as she mimicked his fall, much to the joy of Lucas, Will, and Dustin.

"Eleven smirked and whispered something to Mike. He grinned and nodded. As the rest of them kept laughing and mocking Mike's fall, she closed her eyes and concentrated. All of the sudden, the four of them flew back about 5 feet, their shrieks of laughter turning to shrieks of fear. They landed unharmed thanks to the deep and soft snow. Now, it was Mike and Eleven's turn to laugh as the others got up and dusted themselves off.

"Hey that's not fair she used her powers!" Dustin yelled at them.

"Yeah anyway!" Lucas agreed with him as he helped Max up.

"Guys, I think the only way to settle this is with a… snowball fight!" Will exclaimed as he bent down to grab a snowball.

Teams were quickly decided, as Eleven grabbed Mike's hand and ran off with him to hide behind a tree, Lucas grabbed Max's hand and sprinted off in the opposite direction, and Will and Dustin were left in the middle. They quickly began to construct a makeshift fort to provide some sort of cover, halfway through the second wall, Dustin was knocked over once again as a wet and heavy snowball hit him squarely in the face. He left out a grunt as he fell over, and then heard a similar grunt as the same thing happened to Will. He sat up and brushed the snow off his face. "Hey, that's bullshit! No powers!"

The only response he got was giggles coming from somewhere beyond them near a patch of bushes. Lucas and Max came up from behind them, their faces wet with melted snow as well. They all whispered a plan and made two snowballs each. They split up into two attack teams, with Lucas and Max going to the right, and Will and Dustin going to the left. They got into positions near the bushes and signaled each other with their hands. Lucas counted down. Three, two, one, and they sprinted around and caught Mike and Eleven completely off guard, pummeling them with snowballs. Each one connected and they went down, covering their eyes. The four stood over them, triumphantly high fiving as the two on the ground recovered.

"I gotta admit you guys, that was a good sneak attack." Mike said to them as they helped them up.

Lucas grinned at them. "Yeah, of course it was, I came up with it!"

Max hit his shoulder. "I helped dumbass!"
"Yeah yeah whatever Max." But they were all laughing.

Mike grabbed El's hand. "Guys, let's each make snowmen of ourselves to teach El how to make a snowman!" He began to pull her towards his backyard, where the snow was fresh and plentiful. The rest of the gang followed him.

"Mike, what is a 'Snow-man?'" Eleven asked him as the others got to work quickly.

"Oh, you just take 3 balls of snow and place one on top of the other, and then you can decorate it." he explained. "Want to help me first?"

She nodded and they got to work. He had her help him make the first and biggest snowball for the base, and when that was in place, he put her to work making the middle snowball while he made the smallest one for the head. He finished first and began looking for decorations.

He looked back and saw her struggling to move the second snowball on top of the first, but before he could go and help her, she stepped back and raised her hand, levitating it on top of the other, and then packing snow around the base to make it level. He got an idea and ran inside to get something to fulfill said idea.
Outside, Eleven was hard at work. She had put the last snowball on top and was now adding small rocks to make eyes and a mouth. She didn't see Mike anywhere and decided that he must be looking for decorations still. She finished the face and stepped back from it just as she noticed Mike running back to her, holding something behind his back.

"Mike, what is that?" she asked, pointing to his arms.

"He smiled and told her to close her eyes. When he told her that she could open them, she was positively overjoyed at the sight. He had added arms to the snowman, one of them pointing out as if in an upraised position, while the other hung off to the side and held an Eggo waffle. It was her.

"Do you like it?" He asked her.

She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. It was just a small peck on the lips, but he could still feel the love and care behind it. When they separated, he smiled at her. Before he could say anything though, a snowball hit him in the back. He whirled around, "Hey, I thought we were done with that?!"

It had been Max. "Yeah, but we are all freezing to death while you two make out! Come inside, we want hot chocolate!" she said, pointing to the other 3 boys as they entered Mike's basement.

He took El's hand and they walked to the door, following Max. "Come on, you're going to love hot cocoa."

One hour later

Filled with hot cocoa and warmed by the fireplace in his basement, they had all settled in to watch some television. While it was the middle of the day, there was still some okay shoes on. They settled on Family Feud, letting the voice of Richard Dawson fill the room as background noise while they chatted about school, home life, and other general stuff. One by one though, warm and cozy, they fell asleep. First it was Will, who was the usual first on asleep, then Dustin, then Max, then Lucas, and soon it was only Mike and Eleven up. She used her powers to flip through the channels as they held hands.

On one channel though, she stopped and leaned forwards. It was a Christmas commercial. It showed Santa Claus handing out presents to little children and putting them underneath Christmas trees. It ended with all of the children and Santa yelling "Merry Christmas!"

Eleven flipped off the TV and looked at Mike very seriously. "What is Christmas?"

"It's this day where you get presents and stuff from your friends and parents and that guy, Santa. The presents get put underneath the tree that's decorated with lights and those colorful balls."

"How does Santa bring you the presents?"
Mike hadn't believed in Santa for over 3 years, but he didn't want to ruin the magic for her. "Well, no one has ever seen him, but most people think he is magical and uses his powers to get to every house in one night and then he comes down through the chimney and leaves presents."

"Like me?"

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Powers?"
"Oh, not exactly like you El. But same concept."
"'Why is Christmas important?"

Oh boy, he did not want to try to explain God and Jesus and the Bible to her. It was simply too complicated. "There was this guy named Jesus who was born on Christmas a long time ago, but not everyone believed that. You'll have to ask Hopper about it."

"Okay. I hope Hopper celebrates Christmas and gets me presents. A tree would be nice too."

She was quiet after that, but Mike's head was alive with activity. He knew what he had to do. He had to go see the Chief.