Photos

 Cider and Ruby

 Cider with Santa

 Fa La La and Ruby

 Cider at work

 Jeanne and Santa

 Santa and Jeanne

 Teddy Bear and Huggins

Teddy Bear

Shortcake and Kyle

 Shortcake and Santa

Shortcake and Santa

Christmas Day!

Shortcake woke up to a lovely, sunny, warm day which was enjoyable, but slightly concerning because of global warming.

She went on a run, then made pancakes, bacon and eggs for breakfast.  Then she and her roommates opened gifts:

Shortcake got a hoodie, some wine, some whiskey, some jewelry and smartwool socks (for running!), a ceramic Santa, a crocheted candle holder, and a fancy glass tealight-holder.

Shortcake and her roommate are spending Christmas watching holiday movies.  They both cried during Prep and Landing.  It came out of nowhere, but when Shortcake thought about how Wayne was going to make sure Timmy got hit Christmas, she burst into tears.  It was kinda like when she cries at marathons.  

Later, Shortcake will go see Into the Woods.  

Merry Christmas from the Christmas tree, the Nativity (Baby Jesus was born!), the Advent calendar, her roommate and Shortcake!

Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve is a magical day at Santaland.  Because it's the day of Santa's big trip, but it's also the last time all the elves see each other until next season.  The North Pole is a big place, people.  We don't always see everyone when we go back there for the off season.

The day started as magically as it could at six in the morning because Cider left this message for Shortcake:

Shortcake has been worried about a particular problem for the last few days, and Cider knew it.  Shortcake saved the post-its.  Because Cider is awesome.

Because it was Christmas Eve,  there were cookies and gingerbread blondies and chocolate.  And pineapple.  It was the only fruit Shortcake ate all day.  

There were a lot of wee babes visiting Santa.  Some were 10 days old.  Some were two months.  A lot of first Christmases.  So adorable.

Shortcake and Peppercorn had their dance party to Michael Buble and the Puppini Sisters "Jingle Bells."  And then Santa decided to dance with them.

Then Santa danced with Jodi:

Managers wear fancy hats on Christmas Eve.

 Bob and Matt and his Grinch hat.

 General Krampus

Shortcake and Lisa and Lisa's fancy shoes

At the end of the night, while waiting to see if there were reshoots, before heading up to the North Pole, all the elves piled into Santa's house to hear stories of Christmas Past.  This doesn't happen every year, so it was a special moment.

Afterwards we all said our goodbyes.  And went home.

That's how short Shortcake is compared to Santa

 A Triple-Layer -Cake: Cupcake, Shortcake and Fruitcake

 Squeak and Shortcake selfie

 Dewdrop and Shortcake

 Shortcake and Ana - Ana is part of the stellar Housekeeping team we had this year

Shortcake and Krampus tried to take a selfie together, but Krampus is too tall.

So they tried again.

 Brian and Spritz

 Marzipan

 Robby and Shortcake

 Shortcake and Avalanche and... someone else

 Shortcake and Blip

Tony and Shortcake

This is what Peppercorn and Shortcake looked like after surviving the last few days together.  And a 12 hour Christmas Eve shift.

Peppercorn and Shortcake modeling their new Santaland hoodies.  Thanks Macy's!

Shortcake went home and ate Indian food and watched holiday movies.  It was a lovely end to the day.

Christmas Eve Eve

Dear readers, Christmas Eve Eve was not as busy as expected.  Santaland kept a brisk pace going, but the line wasn't out of control, not even in the afternoon when Shortcake left.  Which could be due to the drizzly rain.  Or it could mean everyone and their mom is coming to see Santa tonight/Christmas Eve.  It could be another Titanic Tuesday (back in 2009, December 23 became known as Titanic Tuesday because so many people came to see Santa that Santaland hit a metaphorical iceberg and sank.  Luckily, Shortcake was not there, or she might not have survived.)

Shortcake and Peppercorn are the power team this week.  They have every shift together.  They worked last night until 10:30pm, then were back at Santaland this morning at 6am.  Shortcake got about 4 hours of sleep; Peppercorn got even less.  So this morning Peppercorn took a nap:

Shortcake and Peppercorn like to have dance parties to keep their spirits up, but they were both super tired today. So they had an eighth grade slow dance dance party.  Peppercorn was the awkwardly tall girl and Shortcake was the boy who hasn't hit puberty yet.  They danced with hands on waist and shoulders, arms-length apart, making awkward conversation.  Then the song ended, and they both sat down.

Here's a health tip for all you people out there:  Eat food.  Shortcake did not eat dinner last night, and her breakfast was a measly bowl of generic Honey Nut Cheerios.  At 4:30am.  By 9:30am her hands were shaking she was so hungry.  So she went to Au Bon Pain and bought a croissant and chips and a tuna salad sandwich.  And ate it all.  The only times Shortcake wishes she were a robot are when she's hungry, sleepy, needs to pee, or has troublesome feelings.  Being a biological entity is highly overrated and, frankly, more than a little inconvenient.

A kid asked for privacy while reading his letter to Santa.  It was such an unusual request that his mom and the two elves turned themselves in circles before realizing they had to leave the house.

A lot of the elves are heading back to the North Pole tonight, so Shortcake started saying good-bye to a few people, including Cider and Ruby.  

And then she had to get hugs from Santa:

And what is Christmas without Teddy Bear and Fa La La?  (Treetop photobombed.)

Laaaaaaaaaaaaaast Friday

It was a busy day.  Santa had events, and a lot of people were sick.  The line wasn't as long as we expected it to be, which could be a bad sign.  Starting tomorrow, Santaland opens at 7am every day until Christmas.  But Shortcake doesn't have to work weekends!  Aha!  This is a good thing since Shortcake got super sassy today.  She sassed Krampus a lot.  She stared him down.  And then ate a lot of chocolate.  She was so busy she didn't get a chance to get her second cup of tea, nor did she get to eat lunch.  That's not strictly true.  She ate her sandwich around noon.  But usually there are more snacks in there.

Shortcake got Santa a cookie (toffee nut) today since he's gotten her cookies for the last two days.

Here's some miscellaneous photos:

Treetop and Shortcake 

 

 Why yes, Treetop is that tall. 

(Shortcake finds it amusing to stand next to tall elves and take pictures with them.)

Gingerbread and Shortcake

Shortcake at work

Art and Letters

Do you ever ask yourself "What does Shortcake eat for dinner?"  Well, tonight is your lucky night!  Your question is answered.

She had pickles and hummus (on bread, not the pickles).

Kids, this is not a healthy dinner.  Do not try this at home.

Santa got Shortcake another cookie!  This one was chocolate chip and therefore more delicious than the one from yesterday.

Shortcake had some downtime today, so she started reading some of Santa's letters.  Julian wrote "I am a very good boy because I fight bad guys."  I fight bad guys.  Readers, Julian is a superhero!  And he wrote to Santa!  Think about that.  Ponder it.

Gabriella asked for a sewing machine, a stuffed hedgehog and an iPad mini (no cellular data).  "I hope you feel good!"  Why, thank you, Gabriella, Santa is having an excellent season.  She also drew pictures of the sewing machine, hedgehog and iPad.  She's quite the artist.

Speaking of art, here's Violet's list:

Is that art or a list?  Frankly, Shortcake thinks it belongs in the Art Institute of Chicago.  The splash of orange on an otherwise black and white piece.  The "N" and "S" of Santa that could be interchangeable if turned sideways.  The letters at the top that could be letters or could be a secret code.  Shortcake just doesn't know.  There is so much to explore in this piece.

Meanwhile, Charlie would like a polar bear, cheetah and ostrich.

Sure, she probably wants stuffed animals, but wouldn't it be great if she wants a real polar bear, cheetah and ostrich?  We could have a budding zookeeper on our hands without knowing it. 

This is not to be confused with another Charlie's list:

This list is annotated!

There are ratings!  There are editor notes explaining the reasoning behind certain items!  ("They don't make games for the Wii system anymore :(" )

Here's Shortcake's favorite part: Item 2.  Jurassic Park the novel 1 and 2.  "Note:  I will love these books!"  Shortcake loves Jurassic Park.  If she knew Charlie, she would get him this book personally.  And then she would refuse to get him The Lost World.   Instead she would get him Sphere, or Congo or Pirate Latitudes.  Or Prey.  Or The Andromeda Strain.  Or The Terminal Man. All of those books are better than The Lost World.  But Charlie will have to learn the hard way.   (Shortcake has read all of Michael Crichton's books, even the ones published after he died.) 

Shortcake's friend Mike came to visit Santa:

Mike, Santa, Shortcake

Santa Selfie!

Sometimes Shortcake rides public transportation.  And sometimes musicians get on the train car and play their music.  Whether Shortcake wants them to or not.  You know, sometimes Shortcake is just in the mood for an a cappella "Lean Back" mash-up.  But this morning, a clarinetist got on at 14th Street and played "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" until her stop. Imagine it sounded like this, without the piano, and you're half asleep on your morning commute to work.  And that's how Shortcake's morning started.  It was lovely.