Sergio hung out in Luna’s stocking for a bit, but then realized just hanging about wasn’t going to get him closer to Santa. So he checked his guide map (The Night Before Christmas), hopped out of the stocking and started rallying the troops. After studying the poem by Clement Clarke Moore, he decided that Santa would be drawn to the sound of happy children playing, so he sent out a message to his buddies — Rin, the Golden Lion Tamarin, Ella, the Madame Berthe Mouse Lemur, Bobo, the Blue-Footed Booby, Finn, the Fennec Fox, Jagger, the Wolverine, Sandy, the Sand Cat, and Tizzy, the Tasmanian Devil — to round up their kids for some wintry fun. Then he got Luna into her snow gear, grabbed a sled, and ran out the door.

Such is the power of imagination and the magic that the spirit of Christmas brings, that through the front door existed, not the sunny Southern California winter, but a snow-filled countryside complete with the most perfect sledding hill you’d ever want to see. I grabbed some hot cocoa, threw on a scarf and sat on the porch watching them slide down the hill, laughing and squealing with delight. In that moment, everything was perfectly peaceful and right.

The kids were all playing at Timmy’s, you see
Because Winter break from school had set them all free
The noise it was joyful, they all had such fun
Taking turns on the sled, and quarrels were none.

I’m just trying to figure out where Sergio found the reindeer and when the scamp stole all the presents from under the tree so he could put them in the sleigh. When I asked him about it, he said a true elf knows how to load Santa’s pack, and should feel at home in a reindeer-pulled sleigh.