Donnatella Moss for the head canons
Send me a character and I'll give you 5 headcanons!
Also for @lostmyinflatablecrayon who requested 5 Donna headcanons too!
She can't help it, she loves cheese She doesn't want to conform to the stereotype of her family being cheese people. She doesn't. But also, dammit she loves some cheese. Cheese is good! Josh pokes fun at her for it sometimes but she tries to let it slide. One time they take a diplomatic trip to the Netherlands and she is so genuinely excited about visiting a cheese market and getting to buy a bunch of 'cool' 'new' cheeses for her family and herself that Josh tries making fun of it but is actually just very endeared.
Run for Congress I like to think that she runs for Congress after the Santos administration. I'm not sure if it'd make more sense to run for a district in Maryland where she and Josh would've been living for a long time by then, or moving back to Wisconsin (or at least buying a house? I guess?) and running for a district there, but either way, she runs and she wins. It's pure coincidence that Joey ends up running for a House seat in a Californian district in the same year (Josh is having a very exciting year), but that makes it even more fun. She and Joey and Andy have a lot of policy lunches discussing the future of the country, their respective kids, and the occasional deeply necessary trip down memory lane of the Bartlet administration.
Kids, Congress, Helen I like to think that she stays working as Helen's Chief of Staff for the full two terms, or at least the majority of it. Part of that is wanting to see the Santos administration through for a long time, but it's also a good office to be working in while she's having her (in my head three) kids with Josh? It's prestigious enough that she won't have to answer for any gaps in her resume or anything, but Helen is not the most politically driven FLOTUS and she's a mother of two young kids herself who's happy to accommodate where necessary especially when Donna's kids are tiny. In any case, Donna doesn't make her first run for Congress until all kids are in elementary school at least, giving her a bit more time to manage everything. She's not planning to be nursing any babies while in the House, if she can avoid it. Donna's run for Congress is also Josh's real turning point in taking a serious step back from his own career and become the primary parent.
Her knee post Gaza While for the most part, her injuries from the explosion heal pretty well, and she does eventually end up seeking out professional help to deal with the trauma of it, her knee is never quite the same again. Many days she doesn't really notice, but after a long day of running around the East and West Wings, or during the Santos election and re-election campaign, or when she and Josh start having kids and she realizes how heavy it can be to lift a 3 and a 5 year old at the same time, it plays up and she's sometimes still quite bothered by the sudden memory that poses. She doesn't like to talk about it, but Josh (and, once Donna's in Congress and they spend more time together and talk more, Andy) can always tell when it gets to her.
Godmother Donna! Quick little happy one to close it off: Donna is the Godmother to CJ's daughter (who I always call Julia May in my head), and the day CJ asked her to be that is one of the greatest memories for Donna honestly. She takes her role So seriously, and loves that girl as much as she loves her own daughters, easily.