Late St. Nick Day present

Last Thursday (for those keeping track, December 10), Shortcake did not work at Macy's.  But!  A present arrived in the mail from St. Nicholas!

It's fancy chocolate in beautiful wooden boxes.

Miss Denise!

So last Wednesday (a week ago, for those keeping track) was December 9.  Aaaaaaaaaand (drumroll please................) Miss Denise came!

For those of you paying attention over the years, Miss Denise always comes with about 60 people, half of whom are children, and they all want individual photos with Santa.  So we line them all up in the peek hallway and go through one at a time, and somehow we do this so it does not disrupt the Village.

And Miss Denise is always so nice, and so organized, and she lets us know she's coming, and the kids are well-behaved, and basically, Shortcake has a friend crush (you know, where you desperately want someone to be your friend) on Miss Denise.  She looks forward to her coming every single year.

Miss Denise came!

Shortcake went right up and hugged her.  And afterwards, she made sure that she and Blissful (who also works every year with Miss Denise) got a picture with her and Santa.

Santa also had some VIP visits, and, of course, they came at the same time as Miss Denise, so, of course, Shortcake did not get her lunch on time.  She was sooooooooooooooo hungry, it felt like her stomach was starting to eat her esophagus.

Also, Peppercorn starts losing her mind on Wednesdays.  She started walking around pretending to be Santa.  And it was hilarious.

And at the end of the day, we had three strawbosses!  Cider, Genie and Shortcake were all in the same place!  This almost never happens, so, of course, they celebrated with a strawboss group hug.

Let's end on a picture of Miss Denise with Santa, shall we?

Dec. 8 - The Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Remember the Feast of the Immaculate Conception?  When Santaland gets super busy every year in the middle of the week because Catholics.

It happened again this year.  Shortcake said "Bring on the Catholics!"  And they came.

Of course, it's the time of year when the elves start buckling under the pressure of the schedule - not emotionally, but physically.  It is the week that colds start circulating amongst the elves, and everyone's a little short-slept.  Short-sleeped?  Tired.

Santa thanked Shortcake for always being positive in the morning.  Shortcake attributes this pleasantness to a mug of Earl Grey tea and hot chocolate.

Shortcake took her Spanish homework into the Village to get help from Jinglesnaps while he Ushered.  Jinglesnaps was super helpful and patient, but then Krampus stopped by and gave Shortcake a look.  Shortcake was all "Jinglesnap's is helping me!," and Krampus was all "You're doing your Spanish homework in the Village."  So then Shortcake took her Spanish homework and left.

Peppercorn wore a totally awesome penguin sweater!

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.