15 Weeks Until Christmas

Holy cow! There are only 15 weeks until Christmas! That’s NOTHING!

And let me tell you, things have certainly cranked up a notch here at the North Pole. I cannot tell you the energy I’m feeling here.

My days usually begin very early. I try to get into the office about an hour before Mrs. Claus gets here. But lately it seems she’s getting here before me. Her calendar is full nearly every day and I’m noticing she is holding fewer meetings in her office. She just heads out early and visits the elves she wants to talk to. She’s on the go a lot.

She is also on her cell phone a lot, which is strange to say because Mrs. Claus does not really like her phone. Cell phones are kind of a new thing here at the North Pole but with Santa being gone on walkabout this year he wanted to make sure we had a functioning system.

I can tell you that Santa and Mrs. Claus are now spending a lot of time on the phone right now and it’s all business. Santa is not here but some days I feel like he is here. He is very much in touch with everything that is going on.

One thing for certain is that the mail has picked up. Even I am getting letters, which is weird because I’m not an important elf. I am learning how the news we publish brings in questions. I would love to have time to answer them all.

Recently, with all the news of the Reindeer Tracking Office opening, the questions about that and the reindeer have multiplied. I don’t mind telling you about it all because I was first in line to ask questions about this project.

You see my reindeer, Trixie, who I do not get to see often enough, is on the test flight team and I volunteered her for participating in the tracking project. It’s way cool. She wears a new bridle now and it is completely different than before. It lights up, it is heated, and it is cooled. She likes it.

But it is a very technical device. Through an app on my phone I can track all manner of information and even SEE Trixie in flight if there is enough light. It is very cool. Coming soon I will even be able to talk to her but I’m going to need special authorization to use that capability.

I’m trying to be careful with all that. I try not to check up on her too often. They are monitoring how I use the app and especially how I might communicate with Trixie. I do not want to abuse the privilege. The hard part is knowing when she is working and has that bridle on. Sometimes I go to check the app and it says that Trixie is “not engaged”. That means she’s not wearing the bridle. As a test flight reindeer she works a strange schedule, sometimes flying at night and sometimes during the day.

I’ve learned that the bridle does not work well in all kinds of weather. If she is flying through a storm – and the test flight reindeer do that a lot, on purpose – I can lose the signal.

Mrs. Claus has this capability on her phone too. But I don’t think she is as fascinated by it all as I am.

The test flights of Santa’s sleigh continue and they will for some time. So there will be lots of opportunities for me to check up on Trixie.

Questions are also coming in about Santa’s main team of reindeer and when they might be coming back to the North Pole. In fact, I would say some letters coming in are expressing real concern about that.

But I would tell you not to worry. It’s not too late and nobody here seems to be surprised that they aren’t here yet. But I can tell some of you are worried.

I have a feeling we will be talking a lot more about the reindeer in the weeks ahead.

Toodles.