Krampus on Pearl Harbor Day!

Last Monday was December 7, Pearl Harbor Day.  On this day 74 years ago...  a whole lotta people died.  The end.

Santa and Shortcake had an argument about one of the murals on the walls in Santaland.  Santa thought that there was a rabbit with a horn between its ears, a unicorn rabbit, if you will.  Before we opened Santaland, Shortcake went to look at it with him, and she did not see the unicorn.  It looked like a regular old rabbit with a shadow on its ear.  She pulled in Huggins and Figgy for outside opinions, and they sided with Shortcake.  Santa refused to cede his position.

Krampus said we had to open Santaland, and it was left as a draw.

Captain America came to visit Santa!  It was a boy, maybe five or six, wearing a Captain America suit, complete with mask.  He was from England.  So Santa took a photo with him flexing his arms and, you know, saving the world.  Like you do.

A child puked in Santa's house.  Thankfully, we have a crackerjack housekeeping team who were very thorough in cleaning his house.  There was the powder to pull it up, then the mopping, and the getting it out of cracks, and the cinnamon air freshener...  Shortcake gave Housekeeping many buttons.

Shortcake is learning Spanish (and not doing a terribly great job of it), and she practices her Spanish on the elves.  She has taken to asking for help on her homework.  She had to practice reading a paragraph out loud.  Poor Jinglesnaps heard it twice.  Little Star and Happy also listened to it on their lunch break, and they were very congratulatory of her reading.  Now if she could just learn what she said...

Monday night was the first time Shortcake was able to see the movie Krampus.  Good news, it didn't suck.  It was not a waste of money or time.  Mainlining Christmas has a fairly accurate review.  This is Shortcake with the only movie poster available at the movie theater.

St. Nick Day!

Happy St. Nick Day!  Shortcake wasn't at Santaland last Sunday, but she still celebrated.  Because it's the best day out of the entire year.  Obviously.  Hello presents!

This is a good chunk of what St. Nick brought Shortcake.  Here you can see some ornaments, chocolates, two books, some cards, some fruit...

Sarita was really excited about the baby Groot keychain she got.

This is the Lego Star Wars Advent calendar Shortcake got!

The ornaments Shortcake got.  She put them up at work for some festive speakers!

And this is the light up pen Shortcake got!  It lights up when she writes with it!

KRAMPUSNACHT!

Longtime readers of the blog will remember Krampus, the man in charge of Santaland.

He took his name from Krampus, the legend who punishes the bad children while Santa rewards the good children.  It's appropriate.  While he can't do what Santa does, he fulfills a necessary purpose and supports Santa.

December 5th is Krampusnacht.  Conveniently, it falls on the day before St. Nicholas' Feast Day.

And this year Krampus has his own movie!

Krampus in his office with the Krampus movie poster on the wall

The movie opened yesterday.  A whole bunch of elves went to see it Thursday night, but Shortcake couldn't go.  And she was very sad and pouted about it.  But she's going to go on Monday!  Here's the trailer to get you ramped up.  And Adam Scott is in it!  He was in Parks and Recreation!  Adam Scott!  This is going to be so much fun!

Krampus promised Shortcake there were no vampires in the movie, as she is scared of vampires and tries to only watch scary things during the day.  This includes any Doctor Who episodes involving Weeping Angels and Vashta Nerada.  Mostly vampires.

Trailer!

When the register line goes down...

Shortcake had a good day.  She was efficient and on it.  An elf told her she was the best strawboss even though Shortcake knows (A) it's not true because Cider and Genie are equally awesome and (B) if Shortcake actually believed that, it would go to her head, and she would get cocky.  And then things would go wrong.  But Shortcake can honestly say she did a good job today.  She was in the zone, and she hit 10,000 steps by 1pm - take that Fitbit challenge!

However, the register line was not on it.  It was ridiculously long.  Now, this happens, and we've learned how to deal with it.  BUT it should not be happening on the first Friday in December.  It happens on weekends and the week before Christmas.  Not the first week.  Shortcake thinks the Village was so good at their jobs today that the register elves couldn't keep up.  That's right.  Gauntlet thrown, register elves.  BAM.

Shortcake is learning Spanish, and we have a few Spanish speaking elves.  So she likes to compose a sentence (usually very simple), then run up to a Spanish-speaking elf, say, Teddy Bear or Jinglesnaps, proclaim it loudly, and then run away.  It goes like this:

SHORTCAKE: Yo estoy en Santaland!
JINGLESNAPS: You are in Santaland.  Yes.  Good.
SHORTCAKE: leaps away

SHORTCAKE: Yo soy una hefe de Papa Noel!
TEDDY BEAR: Okay.  Good.
SHORTCAKE: leaps away

Surprisingly, Teddy Bear still agreed to a selfie with Shortcake.  What face is Shortcake making?

Teddy Bear was crowd captain for the first part of the day, which meant he and Shortcake got to talk on walkie to each other.  It was just like old times, when they both worked the front line.  Good times, good times.  Teddy Bear also told Shortcake she was awesome, but she thinks he was teasing.  Shortcake's affection for Teddy Bear has been well documented over the years.

Teddy Bear & Santa; Shortcake, Teddy Bear and Santa taking a selfie

Shortcake's friend sent a letter to Santa, so Shortcake made sure he read it.  He said he'd do his best.

 

Santa reading the letter

Selfie!  Shortcake is all about the selfies this year.  And yes, she blocked out the actual request 'cause it's a friend, and that kind of thing feels private.

Treetop contemplating a tree

Selfie of Treetop and Shortcake

Shortcake finds taking pictures with tall people amusing.  Because they are often 15-16" taller than her.  This is a selfie.  Shortcake's face is barely in it.  She's on her tip toes.  Treetop's hair is in more of this photo than Shortcake is.  Hilarity ensues.

Slooooooooooooooooooow Wednesday

Today was a very, very slow day.  It's nice to have these early in the season.  We start to miss them around, oh, December 15.  Basically, on slow days, it means Shortcake and Peppercorn and Santa just hang out, talking about... anything really.

Like the elves.  Since Shortcake can't always be with Santa, it's nice to know the elves are looking out for him.  Snowdrop filled up Santa's water tub today.  (No, really, it's a 5 gallon jug of water filled with ice.  And water.  Ice water, if you will.)

Santa and Shortcake got a lovely photo together.  Aren't we adorable? 

And then they tried to take a sassy selfie.  Santa succeeded.  Shortcake did not.

Santa likes to play a game with the strawbosses.  When they enter the Santa room (where he gets ready for the day) through a specific door, the strawbosses have to call out "Marco," and Santa responds "Polo."  Cider plays this game instinctively.  Shortcake refuses to play.  So she started calling out names of other explorers: Magellan.  Hernan Cortes.  Pizarro.  Robert Falcon Scott.  Roald Amundsen.  Then she went a little off topic.  Venezuela.  Sir Francis Bacon.  Sir Isaac Newton.  Marie Curie.  Alan Turing.  Eleanor Roosevelt.

Shortcake anticipates having a lot of fun with this version of the game.

Santa got the best letter today.

Yeah, it's that long.

It's so long Santa and Sprinkles could look at completely different sections of it at the same time.

Sprinkles and Santa examining the list.

Happy Child!

Tuesday was Operation HAPPY CHILD!  Except you have to say it in a deep loud voice like "HAP-PY CHILD!" and the "child" is on a higher note than "happy."  It's very important to say it like this - everyone in Santaland does.

It's an event where underprivileged children come to Macy's, have a breakfast of cereal and milk and orange juice, and see Santa.  They also get presents: a book, a hat, a Snoopy plush doll, AND they get to pick out one toy.  It's really a very sweet event, and we make a lot of kids very happy.  And there's a video!

Santa giving a child a toy during Happy Child.

There were other magical visits as well.  One little girl wanted a red lollipop and a puzzle.  Shortcake understands this.  Once you've put the puzzle together, what are you going to do with it?  Put it together again?  Shortcake thinks not.  You need a new puzzle.

One boy brought in two stuffed walruses that he acquired at the aquarium.  He put one on each of Santa's knees while he stood and told Santa what he wanted for Christmas: a sea lion and a real bird.  It's probably good he did not want a real sea lion, as it is hard to maintain a habitat for a sea lion for in New York City.  This visit became known as the Visit of the Walrii.

A little girl forgot to give her letter to Santa, so after her mom looked at the photos, they went back to see the big guy.  He had the girl stand on the magic box while Santa opened the letter and looked at it with her.  Shortcake peeked over Santa's shoulder, and she can assure you this letter was not written in English.  In fact, it looked like colorful, circular scribbles.  On both sides.  But Santa could read it.  He conferred with the girl, and then she, her mom and her brother went on their way.

By the end of the day, Shortcake was very tired.  She had gotten about 4 1/2 hours of sleep the night before (and about 5 1/2 hours the night before that), and, as you well know, elves (and strawbosses!) need their sleep.  So Shortcake curled up the only place she could to take a (very brief) nap.

You know what the best part of the day was?  Hokay.  So December 2 is Cider's birthday.  But Cider wasn't working on December 2.  So Shortcake decided to celebrate on December 1.  You know what the best part of this is?  Cider haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaates his birthday.  Like, HATES it.  He doesn't want anyone to know when it is.  But he turned 30 two years ago, (remember that?) so now it's in Shortcake's Google calendar.  (What?  We have Google at the North Pole.)  So Shortcake told everyone from the managers to the elves to Santa himself.  And every single person wished Cider a happy birthday.  And the best part of all this?  Cider said to Shortcake, and this is a direct quote, "I hate all of you.  But I hate you the most."  

And it warmed the cockles of Shortcake's heart.  Her work was done.

Cider's birthday card from Shortcake

Princess Unicorn Cupcake Face

Monday was a slow day.  Ruby and Cider got engaged - did you hear about that?  They got engaged after Christmas last year, in front of Santa.  Spritz and Sprinkles and Gingersnap were also there, and it was very exciting.  Ruby told Shortcake the whole story, and it was lovely and charming and everything an engagement story should be.

Santa told Shortcake she was "marvelous," and gave her a new nickname: Princess Unicorn Cupcake Face.  This nickname warms the cockles of Shortcake's heart.  She wore a dress on Monday, and it caused quite the commotion.  Santa and the elves are not used to seeing her in a dress.  Shortcake was all "Look!  I managed to dress myself like a real human!"  She also thought the belt with the headset on it kinda gave her swagger like a pirate, but it's hard to see in this photo.

Santa is much taller than Shortcake.

And now it's time for some letters to Santa!

Item number 3 is sweet - homes for homeless people.

Who doesn't love a list with illustrations?