47 Weeks Until Christmas

Just 47 weeks remain until Christmas, gang. That’s not a lot! We are already past the 11 month mark, so we’re well on our way to the new season.

Sorry I missed last week. I got sick! Both Mrs. Claus and I did. She got the bug first so I went over to her place and made chicken soup for her. Then I got it and she came to my little apartment and made me some chicken soup.

Her soup was much better than mine.

Mrs. Claus just has a touch to things when it comes to food. I know she has a few years on me and that experience is all the difference but I think there’s an extra special something that she puts in stuff that just makes you go “Wow!”.

Everything she makes has kind of a sparkle to it. That chicken soup was healing but she also made these biscuits to go with it and I cannot tell you how yummy they were. They were just THE BEST. It sounds simple, but Mrs. Claus’ chicken soup and biscuits cured me in a hurry.

There are many things happening at the North Pole. Some things I can tell you about, some things I cannot. And some things have to wait until later.

I went to my first news meeting in more than a year the other day. Elf Harold Star was there, so was Elf Ed Zachary. Elf Ernest was running the meeting and it was all about the news that is piling up.

A great deal is going on. But nobody’s reporting on it because…Elf Ernest is making them sit on the stories.

Why?

Well, Santa’s still mapping out this new year. He’s been very busy meeting with a lot of elves and talking over a lot of stuff. That is not unusual for January because every year the first thing we do is look at how everything went at Christmas and we set goals and make plans to do better in the year ahead.

But Santa seems to be taking his time with it this year.

I think it is because he was gone for so much of last year. Elves have so much they want to tell him, too, because he wasn’t here to see what everyone went through. So Santa is taking his time.

But things need to get started. There’s a new sleigh to build. There are new reindeer to train. There are toys to be made and regional tracking centers to set up and elves to put into new jobs and – oh my! – so much needs to be done.

Here’s one bit of news I just won’t sit any longer. The other day we had what I consider to be the saddest goodbye of the year. The reindeer have started to leave the North Pole for the season. They will not return until August at the earliest, but likely not until October.

I understand why they leave. Reindeer come from all over the world and Santa always tells us that they go back to their homelands after Christmas is over because that is what’s best for them. It is not good for them to be away from their families and their natural habitat for so long. So they go back after Christmas every year.

They haven’t all left yet. But many have, including all of Santa’s team except for Vixen. She’s going to stay a while longer.

I know many of you have written in about Vixen and you want to know how she is doing. The ride she took with Santa on Christmas did make her pretty tired but I saw her about a day after Christmas and she was one very happy girl.

The doctors say she is still recovering and that is why she is going to stay at the North Pole a while longer. She nearly has full flexibility back but they are working on her stamina. Vixen really wants to participate in the Reindeer Games next year and the doctors say that if she wants to do that she will need a lot of discipline between now and then to get ready.

So far it’s going really well for her and I’m excited to have her around.

That’s about as much news as I dare share for right now. I’ll just ask you to be patient while the North Pole works through setting things up for this year.

I’m certain Santa knows what he is doing.