Hello Everyone, Santa here, finally feeling rested up from Christmas Eve! Before I forget, I wanted to thank everybody for the delicious snacks you left out this year! It was a smorgasbord -- everything from the traditional milk and Christmas cookies (you know I love those!) to apples, popcorn, and potato chips! One of you put out a tasty peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich, and someone else even left a square of lasagna! Yummy!

(There were treats for the reindeer, too -- some of you even made your own versions of reindeer moss! How thoughtful!) I can attest to the fact that between the ten of us, we loved it all. Thank you!

Here at the Pole, we've started our Yule Feast, which means everyone is eating and drinking and laughing and relaxing for three days. The reindeer's parents come to visit again, everyone exchanges presents, the elves take turns sleeping, and we play cool games and basically take it easy. We deserve it! It's our reward after working so hard.

Speaking of presents, I got each of the reindeer beautiful thick new fleece blankets for their stalls, plus a version of ReindeerGames 2.0, for their players. Years ago, when the 'deer were younger and Rudolph first arrived here at the Pole, they wouldn't net him play any ReindeerGames -- they even called him names! -- but we cleared all that up right away. Now they're all good friends.

This morning I had a long talk with Blitzen, whom as you know is in the "penalty box" for his actions over the past few weeks. I asked him why he was acting up, and he said he was sorry, that he's just been feeling more and more pressure as Varsity Leader to be, well, the leader; he said the pressure had made him lose confidence in himself. So he hid contraband food to make himself feel better, and he short-cut the course last week so that he would look better in the eyes of Coach Bryan!

Blitzen clearly felt bad about it, and we talked about how everybody looks up to him, and what kind of pressure that much responsibility requires. Then we agreed that maybe it would be better to share the leader position so that in the future he won't feel so much weight. He smiled, finally, and said that would work great for him. So Cupid will stay Leader for a while longer, then the position will rotate.

Speaking of rotation, it's almost my turn at the karaoke tournament, and I have to brush up on the lyrics to "Winter Wonderland." (It was either that or "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow"!) I love the classics, but my singing voice is terrible!

o<|;^D

Talk to you soon!

Love,

Santa