Reindeer's Blog

HI you guys! It's me, Comet! ... Well, we're officially into the new year! Santa and Mrs. C are going on a vacation, which always means that the new year is fully here! Cupid told ~me~ that Rudolph told HER that Mr. and Mrs. C are going to Hawaii this year! I LOVE Hawaii! ... Well, at least as much as I've seen of it. (Cuz I've only seen it in the dark, y' know. On Christmas Eve.) But even in the dark, I can still tell that Hawaii's beautiful! There are beaches, and SUPER cool waves, and big mountains, and really tall palm trees, and it's really warm and everyone there is really really nice. So that's excellent! I just wish the Team could go, too! THAT would be totally excellent. (Mr. Instubble said that Mr. and Mrs. C are trying to travel "incognito," which he said means that they're kinda going in costume, so they won't be recognized. Cuz, y' know, they'd be MOBBED if everyone knew who they were! They're more famous than celebrities!)

As for things here at the Barn, stuff's finally calming down after the big RESCUE, to help the snow hares! (Cupid told me that she told you guys about that!) I couldn't go on the rescue mission, 'cuz I'm too young. But I got to hear all about it! And I got to see Kidu in Dr. Balmer's House of Healing! (She's kinda famous around here.) Kidu is doing tons better (we've all been visiting her and bringing her gifts of reindeer moss and stuff). Dr. Balmer says that she'll be going back to her people in a few days. So THAT's pretty great that she's all healed! (But I know Cupid's going to be bummed. 'Cuz she really loves Kidu.)

The other thing that's happening is that Thessaly Tinselcom said she's going to take advantage of Mr. and Mrs. C being gone, and she's going to upgrade all the computers at the Pole. And THAT means that we won't be able to blog for a while, 'cuz the computers are going to be all turned off and taken apart and stuff.

I'm SO BUMMED! But Thessaly told us that she's doing some really cool things to the computers, and the "down-time" is just a temporary thing. We'll be able to talk to you guys again later on! So that's a relief!

But, since we won't get to talk to you for a while, the whole Team wanted to say something to you. (OK YOU GUYS! I'M READY! ... You guys shout, and I'll type what you shout! ...)

... "Have a GREAT Two-Thousand-and-EIGHT! ... Talk to you SOOOOOOONNNN!!!"

(That was excellent! Thanks you guys!)

Alright ... so hang tough, hope everything's cold as ice with you! And we'll talk to you guys as soon as we can!!! 'Til then ...

Be cool!

Rudolph, Blitzen, Dancer, Dasher, Vixen, Cupid, Donder, Prancer, and ... Comet!

*Hi*! It's Cupid again! ... Did you hear about the big storm we had up here at the Pole? It was huge! And scary! There was SO much snow, and the winds were SO strong, that a whole bunch of TREES in the magical Pole Forest came down!!! And they're REALLY big trees! ... I mean, none of us here in Santa's Village had any power or anything. But the really huge thing was all those trees coming down! Mostly because poor KIDU'S people were in trouble! Big trouble.

It happened during the very worst part of the blizzard. The winds were howling at almost 100 kilometers-an-hour (that's crazy strong!), and the snow was falling horizontally! Huge drifts were forming, and those of us who live in the Village were trapped. And then the power went out!

We were doing our best to weather the storm ... playing games inside (we were practicing our Flocking skills! It was great!). And THEN, all of a sudden, there was this huge, long BOOOOOM! ... BOOOM! ... BOOM-BOOM! ... and everyone stopped! The whole Team gathered together in silence. We were pretty scared (at least me and Vixen were), because we didn't know what had just happened. We just knew it sounded pretty bad.

Moments later, Thessaly Tinselcom came bursting into the Barn. Well, that is to say, her image suddenly appeared in the Barn. Nobody could go outside, or move around in the Village, but Thessaly could -- because she's the coolest elf I know! She's also really smart, and she's invented all KINDS of cool technology and machines and stuff. Including a machine that can send her picture to different places in the Village. Blitzen said it's called a "holographic image," and it's basically a three-dimensional picture of Thessaly that can talk and hear and see. But it's not the real her -- it's just a projection of her, like a living 3D movie!

So, anyway, Thessaly asked us to get Mr. Instubble right away. Then the two of them talked, and then Mr. Instubble announced to the Team that some of the big trees in the Forest had blown down! (Thessaly had seen it on the screen of her Forest Monitoring Station.) One of the trees had come down on top of the main burrow where Kidu's tribe lives!!! Some of us gasped, and then everyone started talking and shouting at once.

Once Mr. Instubble got us all calmed down, he said there was nothing we could do until the storm blew over, but then we'd need to form a Rescue Team. All KINDS of hooves shot into the air, as practically everyone on the Team volunteered to help! (Even Blitzen wanted to be a part of it.)

So that's all that we've been doing for the last few days!

The blizzard finally blew itself out, and we were finally able to go out into the snow. Coach went first and dug us a big, wide path in the snow toward the Forest. Some of us from the Team came, and lots of the elves, and Mr. Instubble came, too, with a chain-saw. It was a huge rescue effort! We found the big tree that had fallen on the snow-hare burrow, and we worked for days to get the snow cleared, and to get the tree cut and moved. It was really hard work. And we were worried that the burrow might have caved-in. But, once we found the opening, Pippkin bravely volunteered to investigate! (Pippkin is the smallest elf at the Pole.) Coach attached a long safety-lead to Pip, then, with a brave wave, he crawled in and went to find Kidu and her family.

With Pippkins' help, we were able to rescue every member of the burrow!!! Parts of the underground warren had collapsed, and Kidu had broken her paw trying to save her people from the cave-in. But we got her out safely, and Coach called Dr. Balmer on his walkie-talkie. The Doc came and brought a stretcher for Kidu. Dr. Balmer brought Kidu to the House of Healing, and totally fixed her right up! She's been healing really fast ever since. And it's been nice to go visit her and have her so close. (She's usually really shy!) I'll be sad when she leaves to go back home.

Well, that's the big news! I'll keep you posted on what happens next!

Love, Cupid

HI you guys! It's me, Comet! ... Things have been SO crazy here at the Pole you wouldn't even believe it! But lemme back up really quick ... FIRST of all, we had a ROCKIN New Year's celebration, as you prob'ly herd. ("Herd" / "heard" ... Get it? That's a reindeer joke!) Mr. Ronderbaunt's crew went ALL OUT on the decorations! There were spluglers EVERYWHERE -- levitating above the tables (thanks to Thessaly Tinselcom's magical technology), spinning around on top of the tables, and swirling around the Village Square in animal-like PACKS! Plus people were dancing with them, or putting 'em on their sleds, or in their friends' hair! (In case you don't know, spluglers are these special, ever-spark spark-plugs that Mr. Ronderbaunt invented. They can spin around, or stay put in place. But the COOLEST part is that they spray out multi-colored sparkler-fire NON-STOP! Heh, luckily it's this special kind of sparkler-fire that doesn't actually catch things on fire. So they're totally safe. And totally cold as ice!)

Well, so New Year's happened. And then we rested for a couple days. And then, this super crazy-big BLIZZARD ripped across the Arctic! It was kinda scary, actually. The storm hit the Pole pretty hard. And everyone was pinned down for, like, a whole WEEK! (I'm serious!) It was SO cold, and SO snowy, and SO windy that the main power-station for Santa's Village got completely knocked out! So we were in total, shivering darkness for days! It also meant we didn't have any running water. And we couldn't even go out and play, cuz there was no WAY we could go running or skating or sledding outside -- the drifts were tons bigger than a whole bunch of Coach Bryans all stacked up together!

Since there was no electricity, we couldn't blog, or charge-up our HoofFones, or play Wii, or watch movies, or ANYthing. And we had to light candles everywhere, which meant we had to be REALLY careful. We read a lot, and we played tag indoors (away from the candles), and tried to keep each other entertained. (Mr. Instubble kept the wood stove in the Barn cranking, so it was pretty toasty.) But it was SUPER boring! And after a bunch of days being trapped in the Barn, some of us on the Team started hoofing and antlering at each other. Mr. Instubble had to come in and yell at us a few times. (Dasher even got sent to his stall -- twice!) Mr. Instubble said we had "Cabin Fever." (The weird thing was, I sure didn't feel sick. And Dr. Balmer never came by to check on us. So I'm still not sure what Mr. Instubble was talking about.)

Anyway, at one point, we were SO bored and antlery that Donder decided to open up one of his air jars (!!!) -- y' know, from his "Vintage Oxygen Collection?" (Remember? Donder collects air every New Year's Eve, in these special jars. He keeps the collection in his stall.) So Donder announces to the Team that he's gonna open up one of his jars, and that anyone who's interested should come over to his stall! Of course, EVERYONE crowded over to witness the big jar-opening!

For extra drama, Donder announced that he'd open up a really old jar -- one from 1997! He reached for the jar, and everyone went silent. He slowly unscrewed the lid, and everyone held their breath. Then, there was this soft swissshhhhing sound, and the lid came off! Donder asked Vixen if she wanted to be the one to breathe-in the air. (!!!) She smiled this goofy girl-smile, put her muzzle into the jar, and took a big in-breath. There was this brief silence, then EVERYONE started shouting, wanting to know what the air smelled and tasted like! ... Vixen reported that it smelled like metal and sand, and that it tasted like hope ... and excitement. And she said she felt ... younger. We all thought it was pretty weird and excellent!

Hope you're excellent, whatever kind of air you're breathing! Til next post ...

Be cool!

Comet

hello. i am mipps. i notice that the year has come around to a new one, and i wish you excellent tidings. i scratch you this with my tiny mouse paw ;;;;

mipps

HI you guys! It's me, Comet! ... Today is the very last day of the year! Which means ... TONIGHT'S NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!

New Year's Eve at Santa's Village is a pretty awesome thing. It's not as crazy-big as the Yule Feast or Thanksgiving, and we don't host tons of guests or anything, but it's still TONS of fun! First off, everyone's allowed to stay up really late (which rocks). And there will be a big dinner for everyone who lives here at the Pole, with banquet tables set up in the Village Square. Decorations are done by different groups in different years -- it rotates.

This year the Garage crew (y' know, Mr. Ronderbaunt and all the elves and other folks who work with him) is handling all the decorations. I can't WAIT to see what they're going to come up with! (Last time they were on decorations, there were all these strings of little lights everywhere -- but the lights were in the shape of miniature sleighs! Oh -- and the Square was filled with all these miniature, light-up, radio-controlled cars that were totally zooming around under the tables and around the Square all night long! It was COLD AS ICE!)

We'll all put on silly hats and sit down for a yummy dinner, and there's usually noise-makers of every kind set out on the tables, and everyone will have mugs of steaming-hot, spiced apple cider, ... and it's tradition that, during the whole dinner, anyone can stand up and shout out a toast to the many things we've loved and been thankful for in the past year. (It's totally fun! I've been getting ready all WEEK, thinking about what my New Year's toasts are gonna be!)

Then, after dessert, everyone will gather in a group and count down the last seconds of the year, ... and then cheer really loudly and make a TON of noise when the year turns over! That's probably my FAVORITE part!

Oh! And Donder does this funny thing every year. He collects jars of air! I'M SERIOUS! Every New Year's Eve, right before we do the countdown, Donder will bust out a new empty jar that's all carefully labeled and stuff, and he'll capture some air from the old year before the new year officially comes. (It always looks like he's catching lightning bugs or something, but instead, he's catching AIR! ... Which means that there's no air-holes in the lid of the jar.) So Donder's got this whole collection of AIR-JARS lining the top of his stall on this special shelf he built! He calls it his "Vintage Oxygen Collection." LOL! He's so funny.

Well I'd better scramble. Coach wants to have a meeting with the Team before we get ready for dinner -- something about "Goal Setting for 2008." (Grown-ups can be SO weird!)

I'll write again soon! Have an AWESOME New Year's Eve, and ...

Be cool!

Comet