HI you guys! It's me, Comet! ... Today is the very last day of the year! Which means ... TONIGHT'S NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!

New Year's Eve at Santa's Village is a pretty awesome thing. It's not as crazy-big as the Yule Feast or Thanksgiving, and we don't host tons of guests or anything, but it's still TONS of fun! First off, everyone's allowed to stay up really late (which rocks). And there will be a big dinner for everyone who lives here at the Pole, with banquet tables set up in the Village Square. Decorations are done by different groups in different years -- it rotates.

This year the Garage crew (y' know, Mr. Ronderbaunt and all the elves and other folks who work with him) is handling all the decorations. I can't WAIT to see what they're going to come up with! (Last time they were on decorations, there were all these strings of little lights everywhere -- but the lights were in the shape of miniature sleighs! Oh -- and the Square was filled with all these miniature, light-up, radio-controlled cars that were totally zooming around under the tables and around the Square all night long! It was COLD AS ICE!)

We'll all put on silly hats and sit down for a yummy dinner, and there's usually noise-makers of every kind set out on the tables, and everyone will have mugs of steaming-hot, spiced apple cider, ... and it's tradition that, during the whole dinner, anyone can stand up and shout out a toast to the many things we've loved and been thankful for in the past year. (It's totally fun! I've been getting ready all WEEK, thinking about what my New Year's toasts are gonna be!)

Then, after dessert, everyone will gather in a group and count down the last seconds of the year, ... and then cheer really loudly and make a TON of noise when the year turns over! That's probably my FAVORITE part!

Oh! And Donder does this funny thing every year. He collects jars of air! I'M SERIOUS! Every New Year's Eve, right before we do the countdown, Donder will bust out a new empty jar that's all carefully labeled and stuff, and he'll capture some air from the old year before the new year officially comes. (It always looks like he's catching lightning bugs or something, but instead, he's catching AIR! ... Which means that there's no air-holes in the lid of the jar.) So Donder's got this whole collection of AIR-JARS lining the top of his stall on this special shelf he built! He calls it his "Vintage Oxygen Collection." LOL! He's so funny.

Well I'd better scramble. Coach wants to have a meeting with the Team before we get ready for dinner -- something about "Goal Setting for 2009." (Grown-ups can be SO weird!)

I'll write again soon! Have an AWESOME New Year's Eve, and ...

Be cool!

Comet