Hi Everybody,

You remember Bill Beakman, our exchange student from the South Pole? We've been having fun with him, because as a penguin, the poor thing is completely confused by many of the concepts (and toys) that relate to Christmas.

For example, Bill thought Hanna Montana was a town, like Portland, Oregon, or Longmont, Colorado.

He thought a Wii was just a happy word -- Wheeee!! -- folks exclaimed when they were playing a fun video game. Wheeee! (It kind of makes sense, if you think about it.)

He was calling it "Musical High School" until one of the elves politely corrected him.

He didn't know how to build a "snowman," but instead made a "snowguin."

Bill's very good-natured about his naïveté. One concept he still can't wrap his mind around, though, is the idea of fruitcake -- he gets the "cake" part, but hadn't ever eaten fruit before. Imagine that! Then someone offered him a bite, and he screwed his face up very strangely, took a BIG gulp of milk to wash it down with, and afterwards said he wondered why anyone would eat such silly stuff.

He preferred chocolate, he said.

Speaking of cake, next week is the elves' big monthly birthday party! It works like this: elves celebrate their birthdays once a month instead of once a year (sweet deal, huh?) and always do it on the 12th of every month. Why? Well, you have to spell it out: twELFth. So once a month the Pole has a big birthday party, and the elves getting ready for it. (In their spare time, of course!) I'll tell you more about it next week!

In the meantime, I have to go explain to poor Bill what a "partridge in a pear tree" is.

Love,

Santa