Hello!

Today Mrs. Claus taught me how to make roasted pumpkin seeds.

First we set the oven for 350 degrees. While it was warming up, we gathered all the gloopy shloop from inside the leftover pumpkins (the reindeer had a case shipped up for the Haunted House) and separated out all the seeds. There was a heap! Then we melted a big dab of butter in a big heavy skillet and cooked the seeds in it for a few minutes, until they turned slightly brown.

I salted them, and tossed in a couple teaspoonfuls of cumin. (That's a delicious spice from India.) Then we popped them in the oven, pulling them out occasionally to stir everything around.

20 minutes later, the seeds were done. It was so easy! They were delicious, although I almost burned my mouth by eating them too quickly. We also have pumpkins for pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, pumpkin muffins -- enough to last us for weeks.

We've left the roasted seeds on the counter to cool, and are soon headed off to the Haunted House. Hope nobody bothers them!

I've decided to go traditional again this Halloween: A pirate! I've made an eye patch out of an old gift box, tied a red (of course!) bandana around my head, and rubbed black dye into my beard. Mrs. Claus says I look 400 years younger! I have the belt and boots, of course, but I don't have a hook for my hand -- I might have to pop by the garage to see if Ronderbaunt has one I can use. Also, I don't have a parrot. How can Santa not have a parrot??

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.

Ho ho ho -- er, AAAARRRRrrrrr! Avast y'swabs! All hands on deck!

Or something like that.

Love,

Santa

Hello-Ho-Ho!

Santa here, feeling better, thanks, and getting excited for Christmas...though this week it's all about Halloween! The reindeer have almost finished their Haunted House (which they won't let me inside 'til it's ready) and the elves are so excited it's hard to get anything done around the factory.

It's funny to overhear everyone talking about their costumes. The elves, most of whom are just a foot or two tall, are all planning to be giraffes and giants and basketball players (Snoop Puppy Dogg is coming as Kobe Bryant), while the reindeer are planning high-concept costumes like "smoke and fire" and "a blizzard." Where do they come up with this stuff?!

Even my mechanic, Rob Ronderbaunt, is getting into the act. Yesterday I stopped by the garage to check on the sleigh (when Mrs. Claus and I took it down to Candy Cane Ranch last week, I felt a weird wobble) and it turns out Rob is planning on dressing up not as his hero, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (that's who he came as last year), but as Dale's car -- that is, Rob's going to paint himself bright red and put a big number 8 on his chest.

Last year I came as a ghost. Sometimes I feel a little old-fashioned.

I'm worried that my own costume will be one Very Harried Santa Claus, because this time of year I've got so much on my mind. With Halloween in two days, we're headed into the chute, and it's my job to make sure everything's running smoothly, the elves are getting along, the reindeer are healthy, the toys and other presents are being ordered and assembled right, plus I have to watch the weather and keep up on everyone's Christmas list -- it's a lot to keep track of.

But I've done it for many, many years, and somehow it all seems to get done. I find my best plan is just do the thing that's right in front of me, right now...which right now is have lunch! Mrs. Claus just poked her head into my office to tell me she's made my favorite tomato soup, with a grilled cheese sandwich on the side.

Sometimes it's the simple stuff that gets me though a long day.

More soon!

Love,

Santa

Hello Everyone,

Santa here, and I'm sorry to report I've caught a terrible cold -- I usually get only one a year, although with any luck it's rarely around Christmas. Last weekend Mrs. Claus and I took a sleigh-ride down to Candy Cane Ranch, to check on this year's crop, and because my red hat was at the cleaners', I went without, and my head and ears got cold. I think I caught it then.

Oh, sorry: Candy Cane Ranch is a 100-acre farm an hour south of the North Pole (though I guess everything is south of the North Pole) where we grow candy canes! Early in the season, the farmers (a pair of easy-going elves named Candice and Canin) harvest the tiny canes for dipping into hot chocolate; then, about mid-November, they pluck the mid-sized ones for hanging on Christmas trees. They leave a few to grow into those monster canes you see every now and then -- you know, the size of walking sticks, with enough peppermint to last until next Christmas.

Anyway, as I said, I caught a cold and yesterday it caused a major malfunction in the wrapping department! The mix-up went like this: I'd instructed the elves very carefully to put extra 'knots' in their wrapping ribbons, so they wouldn't come loose, but with my stuffed-up nose, it must've come out as 'dots' because this morning, hundreds of presents were covered with dots! Gold ones, green ones, silver ones, rainbow-colored ones -- it was a dotstravaganza! Mrs. Claus said it looked like as though all the presents had the measles.

I was in a panic. I finally found Snoop Puppy Dogg, the Master Wrapper here at the toy factory, who helped me figure out the mistake. We laughed about it, then corrected the problem, and I think we managed to catch all the dotted, ribbon-less boxes. But if your present arrives this Christmas bearing dots instead of ribbon, you'll know what happened!

Maybe we could use them as giant dice.

Okay, more soon! I'm off to brew up a pot of Echinacea tea.

Love and sniffles,

Santa