Days of Our Lives (DOOL) spoilers recap for Thursday, December 26, reveals that Ava Vitali (Tamara Braun) found Steve Johnson (Stephen Nichols) at the pub and handed over the phone so he could talk to Tripp Johnson (Lucas Adams). Tripp shared that he asked Wendy Shin (Victoria Grace) to marry him on Christmas, so Steve was happy to learn she said yes.

Once the call wrapped up, Ava convinced Steve to help her look into who’d been sending her threatening messages.

Although Ava made a prediction about it being Kristen DiMera (Stacy Haiduk), she couldn’t be sure.

Steve used a program that could unscramble blocked numbers and pinpoint the location of burner phones, so he determined the last message came from the DiMera mansion.

That left Ava convinced that Kristen was indeed behind the texts.

Next on Thursday’s DOOL show, Rachel Black (Finley Rose Slater) complained to Kristen about not getting what she really wanted for Christmas, which was her parents’ reunion.

Rachel also mentioned Ava and how she overheard Kristen seeking ideas on how to get rid of her during her chat with Stefano DiMera’s (Joseph Mascolo) portrait. It left Rachel wondering if Stefano told Kristen to lock Ava in the secret room.

At Paulina Price (Jackée Harry) and Abe Carver’s (James Reynolds) place, they spoiled the grandkids with double the gifts for Christmas and their shared birthday.

Eli Grant (Lamon Archey) eventually took the twins sledding while Lani Grant (Sal Stowers) visited Kristen at the DiMera mansion.

Lani spoke to Rachel as well and learned from Kristen that she wasn’t letting her daughter see Brady Black (Eric Martsolf) for the holiday.

That led to Lani giving Kristen a nudge to do the right thing for Rachel’s sake.

At the townhouse on Thursday’s Days episode, Brady exchanged Christmas gifts with Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall) and moped about Kristen not letting him see Rachel on Christmas Day.

After Brady brought up his date with Ava, Marlena became concerned about his pattern of falling for dangerous women.

Brady got a phone call from Kristen asking if he wanted to come over and see Rachel, so he headed for the DiMera manse.

Rachel was thrilled to see Brady and opened up her gift, which was frozen rats since she wanted them as food for her snake.

Although Brady appreciated the chance to see Rachel, he once again accused Kristen of harassing Ava with texts.

In a moment alone, Rachel could be seen texting Ava’s phone and adding “or else” to her message about staying away from Brady.

At the hospital on Thursday’s Days episode, Roman Brady (Josh Taylor) had an allergic reaction to the Santa suit that Kayla Johnson (Mary Beth Evans) convinced him to wear.

Roman was hospitalized briefly, so Kayla turned to Abe as her backup Santa for the kids’ gathering.

Paulina read the Christmas story before Abe played Santa and delivered some gifts.

Although Lani seemed sad about leaving Salem so soon, Eli promised they’d be back in no time and shared a kiss under the mistletoe with her.

Back with Marlena on Thursday’s Days episode, she spoke to Shane Donovan (Charles Shaughnessy) over the phone.

Marlena hoped for a chance to talk to John Black (Drake Hogestyn) while he was on his secret mission, but her efforts didn’t pan out.

A delivery person eventually brought a package containing John’s card along with strawberries and whipped cream, so Marlena smiled over his present.

Days of Our Lives spoilers say this will serve as the calm before the storm since John’s set to go missing soon, so stay tuned for updates on Marlena’s looming bad news.