Merry Friendymas

My Dear Princess and Dear Friends,

Today was a very, very, very full-on day. As you may remember I find big family events very stressy and wearing. And today we were booked for Xmas dinner at Feef and Craig's.

I should add that Craig's mum Miranda has recently moved into the house across the road and as a result - SO MANY RELATIVES! SO MANY! 

Aaaaaargh!!!

Fortunately Feefs also knows what I am like. And so - bless her - made me a Hidden Immunity Idol* for my Xmas present. "This allows you a Time Out from family stuff," she had written. 

I have now played it twice already. 

But to be honest, the people who seemed the MOST stressed by all this were Feefs, Craig and Caro herself. But they are handling it with humour. As you can see from the picture of the sisters preparing Xmas dinner. 

Also I got lovely Xmas messages from the Princess, Fazzy, Ellie and Shenée and that made me feel all nice and warm inside.

So instead of giving you the blow-by-blow on what happened today it occurred to me that I could share my latest "Cutie" story with you. I wrote this one for Fazzy's children at her request, "Cutie Saves Xmas!" she suggested. And she was so excited I couldn't say no. 

You don't have to read it. But I thought it turned out quite sweet.

MERRY FRIENDYMAS EVERYONE!

S.

* See my earlier entry on the phenomenon that is Survivor, for a picture of a Hidden Immunity Idol that I made.

Cutie Chapter 17: In Which Trevor Nearly Ruins Friendymas
It was night time on December the 23rd in Digi and Dave’s little cardboard house. Dave and Digi had enjoyed themselves immensely in decorating their house with lots of twinkly lights and sparkly tinsel. Everywhere you looked, little points of light twinkled like the night-time stars, and the whole inside of the house seemed to glow with the lights and the warmth of Dave and Digi’s love for their little furry family.

In twenty-seven little beds lay twenty-seven fluffy little kittens. Their mischievous ears and naughty whiskers peeking over the top of clean sheets and duvets. Their adorable little heads rested on twenty-seven pillows, as their mommy Digi read them a bedtime story.

It went like this:

T’was the night before Friendymas,
And all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring,
Not even a mouse.

“Not evens mousies?” asked Figgy the kitten, his green eyes wide with astonishment.

“No, it was aaaaaaall quiiiiiet,” whispered Digi to her little black kitten boy. She rubbed his head and he purred and trilled with happiness as Digi continued her story. 

The stockings were hung, 
By the window with care,
In the hopes that Santy Claus,
Would soon be there.

“OOOooooOOOOOoooOO!” said Fluffybreeks.
“WoooOOOOOoooow!” agreed Mitsy.
“Pah!” said Trevor the tortoise.

Digi ignored Trevor and continued with her tale:

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a beautiful sleigh, and flying reindeer,
The sleigh flies so high, it climbs and it soars!
I knew right away that it was Santy Claus!

“Reindeers!” gasped Socko.
“Santy Claus!” said Tupac.
“Bah! Parsnips! What a lot of rot!” snapped Trevor.

Digi put her book down and peered over her reading-glasses at Trevor.

“Trevor,” she said. “Do you mind? I am trying to read to my kittens.”

“Filling their heads with bilge and nonsense, more like,” grumbled Trevor. 

“What’s bilge and non-fence?” asked Mookie.

“Never mind, my darling Mookie,” said Digi, escorting the grumbling Trevor from the room. “Please excuse us for a moment my fluffy little sweethearts,” she told the kittens. 

She took Trevor out into the hallway. “Now look here you,” she said. “If you can’t get into the Friendymas spirit with the rest of us, then you can jolly well sit in the living room with Dave, Ellie, Cutie and Lemon and help make Friendymas decorations, while I read the kittens to sleep.”

“Fine, fine,” said Trevor, grumpily. “I’ll go and sit with the others, but I SHAN’T make silly decorations. Because BAH and PAH and PARSNIPS!”

And off her stomped to the living room. In there, he found the others sitting around shiny paper and sticky tape and glitter and sparkles. Dave and Ellie were making lovely streamers by overlapping purple paper with white paper and twisting it into shape. Cutie was getting quite out of breath blowing up purple balloons, and Lemon was in the corner making decorative stars and scowling because she had somehow managed to cover herself in glue and glitter.

“Why am I so STICKY?” she was saying. “And why is there more glitter on ME, than on the Friendymas stars?” And with that she took a big bite of the Friendymas cake that Dave had made, before realising that it too, was coated in glue and glitter.

“BLEAAAAUGH!” she said, sticking her tongue out. It was COVERED in glitter!

“Yuck! Even my THONGUE ITH THSHINY!” she wailed.

“Ba-doop! Ba-doop! You is SO SILLIES my silly lemonny lemonbear!” laughed Dave. “This is why I LOVES you so much!” 

“DO NOT put your bum in my face!” replied Lemon. “I do not CARE how much you love me! But also yes I love you too,” she smiled.

“Why do you call it ‘Friendymas’ here and not ‘Christmas’?” asked Cutie. "In Porirua it is Christmas.”

“Oooh, you can calls it as you likes,” said Dave. “In Rumblecatty Land it is Friendymas because it is when we celebrates all our friendyships and gives thanks for all their lovies, but does not matter, ‘tis all sames.”

Cutie smiled. Christmas in Porirua was just the same. He loved his friends Zay and Hani and Mommy and Daddy and Christmas was his favourite time to be with them.

“Tis like Santy Claus,” Dave went on. “I has heard in some places he is called Father Friendymas, and in others Father Christymas. I has even heard,” said Dave lowering his voice, “that some people calls him Saint Knickerless. I does not really understand that though,” he said. “For surely in the cold North Pole, knickers must be a necessity.”

They all considered this and agreed that Saint Knickerless was a silly name and most likely incorrect.

“Bah!” interrupted Trevor again. “It’s ALL rot! And stuff and nonsense! If you ask me!”

Everyone turned to look at Trevor, and they could see he was quite cross.

“There is NO SUCH PERSON as Santy Claus!” he continued. “It’s all just PIFFLE!” 

“How cans you says??” asked Dave, astonished. “EVERYONE knows all ‘bouts Santy Claus!”

“Well of COURSE we all KNOW,” said Trevor. “We hear the same story every year! But has anyone actually SEEN this – this – tubby red and white flying person? This white-bearded bearer of trifling trinkets and gaudy geegaws? Because I certainly haven’t!”

Ellie, Dave, Cutie and Lemon looked at each other. They had to admit they had never seen him.

“Ha!” said Trevor. “My very point!” 

“But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist, Trevor,” explained Ellie most kindly. “It just means he uses special magic. I mean, most people have never seen a sunbeam witch either, but I’m perfectly real.”

“Poppycock! Special magic my FOOT,” snapped Trevor. “There is NO SUCH PERSON. Flying reindeer? I ask you. Is it just silliness on a stick!”

“But what about the presents, Trevor?” asked Lemon. “Every year I try to be good and Santy always brings me something that makes me feel special, like a shiny soccer ball or lemon-flavoured lollies, all wrapped up and nice.”

“Oh REALLY?” said Trevor. “Well how very nice for YOU, but I never get ANYTHING.”

The others all drew their breath in shock.

“Really Trevor?” asked Cutie. “Santy Claus never brings you ANYTHING?”

“Nothing!” complained Trevor. “Never ever ever.”

And with that he stomped out of the room and went to sulk in the garden.

“Why is he so grumpy at Friendymastime?” asked Cutie. 

“He’s not really grumpy,” replied Lemon. “He’s just very, very sad. Grumpiness is just tears coming out in a different way, that’s all.”

Everyone looked at her.

“Apparently,” she said. 

“He is sads ‘cos he nevers gots any PRESSIES from Santy!” declared Dave. “But why? Why would Santy ignore the funny little brave little crotchetty little tortoise guy? I don’t understands.”

“Maybe Santy ignores Trevor because Trevor doesn’t believe in Santy Claus?” suggested Ellie. “I mean, Santy is very nice and all that, but maybe he takes it personally when you call him bilge and parsnips.”

The four friends considered this. It seemed to make sense.

“Then we must convince Trevor that Santy exists!” declared Cutie. “That way he’ll stop saying stuff and nonsense and poppycock and things like that and Santy will bring him something nice.”

“But HOW?” asked Lemon. “Ellie said that Santy uses special invisible magic and no-one has ever seen him. How can we prove he exists?”

Dave didn’t say anything in reply. 

But Dave started to rumble. 

Quite loud.

Like this:

RRRRHHHHUUUUUUURRRRRRRRMMMMMMM –
RRRRRMMMMMBBBBUUUUUMMMMMLLLLLLL – 
BBBBUMMMMBBBBLBLLLLBUUMMMBBBBBUMMMMBLLLLLL!!!

It was SO loud that it drew Digi back into the living room from the kittens’ bedroom. “Oh Dave!” she said, “You’re having an idea!”

“I is has-ing a GREAT idea!” said Dave. And then he went back to rumbling.

Meanwhile, Lemon realised she was now stuck to a long length of purple and silver streamer that Ellie had been making. It was stuck fast to one foot, and try though Ellie might, she couldn’t remove it. Lemon danced around the room on one foot, shaking the other as hard as she could, but the streamer wouldn’t move and Lemon just looked ridiculous.

“Are you DANCING, Lemon?” asked Cutie, joining in and waving his arms about.

“I am COVERED in glue!” wailed Lemon, before realising she also had a Friendymas star stuck to her forehead. “Oh good GRIEF!” she moaned.

It was at this point that Ellie decided to take Cutie back home before he was missed. Lemon let her up into the night sky on a long piece of string and Ellie lifted up into the firmament, all aglow with her special sunbeam magic, looking for all the world like a shiny Friendymas decoration herself. Ellie kissed Cutie goodnight and helped him back through the magic door to Porirua where Cutie found Mommy waiting for him, as always.

“Well hello there, Mr. Adventure!” she said cheerily. “What have you been up to THIS time?”

And so Cutie told her all about Friendymas and Santy Claus and about his grumpy/sad friend Trevor the tortoise and how Dave had come up with a secret plan. 

Mommy smiled and ruffled Cutie’s fur. “Oh my goodness,” she laughed. “You and your friends, I can only imagine the mischief you are going to get into if you listen to a rumblecat!” And then she picked him up and kissed him and he felt her warmth going right up to his ears as she tucked him into bed.

He snuggled in close next to Zay and wondered what Dave’s secret plan could possibly be. 

And Zay never even woke up.

The NEXT night, Cutie eagerly returned to the magical realm where it was Friendymas Eve. The day when all final preparations for the big Friendymas celebrations take place! Cakes are baked! Trifles are assembled! Decorations are hung up! Twinkly lights are strung!

As he strolled through the magical realm to Dave’s house, Cutie felt very happy. And then he felt sad that poor Trevor didn’t feel the same way. Cutie just wanted everyone to feel as warm and happy inside as he did, but sometimes he just didn’t know how to make things better.

But then he cheered up, “Dave will know,” he thought to himself. And even at the sight of Dave’s house, under the bright summer sunshine with flowers and trees all around it, he felt his spirits rise.

He strolled up to the house and opened the door. “Daa-aaaaave!” he cried. “Deeeee-geeeeee! Hallooo-ooooo! Is anyone home?”

Dave strolled out of the bedroom. To Cutie’s surprise he was wearing a big red hat over the top of his big orange fluffy ears! The hat was trimmed with white and had a white pom-pom on the end. Dave also wore a big red coat, also trimmed with white, and a big black belt around his middle. And on each of his four feet he wore big black clompy boots that went – 

CLOMP

CLOMP

CLOMP!

as he walked around the floor.

“Yo-ho-ho!” said Dave. “Who is this Dave rumblecatty fellow that you speaks of? I is not Dave! I is Santy Claus!”

Cutie laughed and laughed at his silly friend. “Oh my goodness Dave!” he squeaked in laughter. “That is AMAZING! You look just like Santy Claus! Apart from the big orange tail and the twitchery whiskeries, that is.”

Dave laughed too. “Has you been a GOOD LITTLE RED PANDERY PANDA all year?” he asked. Then he laughed again. “Yo-ho-ho!” he said.

“Um. I don’t think it’s ‘yo-ho-ho’, I think it is ‘ho-ho-ho’,” suggested Cutie.

“YO-HO-HO!” repeated Dave.

“No, like this – ‘HO-HO-HO!’” said Cutie.

“YO-HO-HO!” said Dave.

“No, you’re still not quite getting it, ‘HO-HO-HO!’ you see?” said Cutie.

Honestly, small children listenign to this story, you are just going to help Dave out here. He is trying as hard as he can but he doesn’t seem to be able to do the Santy laugh correctly. Please can you do it and show him how it is done. Okay? Are you with me on this? Let’s try it. Loud as you can please, Dave needs to hear. One, two – 

HO HO HO!

Okay! Very good! But a little louder!

HO HO HO!

That was GREAT! Thank you small children! Just once more, this time hold on to your tummies and pretend that you are very fat like your Uncle Symon and your tummy is going UP and DOWN from laughing so hard!

HO! HO! HOOOOO!!

Nice. I think that helped. Let’s see if Dave can do it now.

“Like this,” repeated Cutie. “HO! HO! HO!”

“HO! HO! HO!” replied Dave.

“You’ve got it! By George, you’ve got it!” smiled Cutie.

The two friends then heard a knock at the door. It was Pinky the pink llama. “Hiiiii!” she said. “I’ve brought my seven friends al-llama-long llama-like you asked, Dave.”

Next to Pinky were seven other pink llamas. “He-llama-LO!” they all said unison.

“Perfect!” said Dave. “Ellie the pointy-hat nice witchy-lady, the pinky llamas is all here!”

“Excellent!” said Ellie, who floated out of the front door. Cutie could now see that Ellie’s string was attached to Lemon’s hand. Lemon followed behind, and trailing behind her was the purple and white streamer, still stuck to her foot. In addition a Friendymas card was stuck to her hand, some mistletoe was stuck to her back, and a mince pie was stuck on her head. She was still all glittery too.

“I am COVERED IN GLUE,” explained Lemon, dancing around, trying to get the streamer off her foot, then shaking her hand about to try and remove the Friendymas card. 

It didn’t work.

“So these are my friends,” continued Pinky. “This is Tina, Aretha, Ginger, Sporty, Scary, Baby and Posh.” 

“And are you SURE you’re okay helping us like this?” asked Ellie. “Because you know, I am going to have to magic you with sunbeams.”

“Sure!” said all eight llamas at once.

“Okay,” said Ellie. “Well the first thing is that we need to make you look a bit more like reindeer. And as we all know, reindeer have antlers, which look a bit like sticks, poking out of their heads.”

The eight pink llamas all nodded. Then each of them produced a woolly hat which had been given to them earlier. Attached to each woolly hat were long twigs that stuck out and looked a bit like antlers. If you squinted. From a distance.

“Excellent work pink llamas!” said Ellie. “And now to make you FLY.”
Ellie summoned up all her sunbeam magic and directed it at the eight pink llamas who all began to glow yellow with the rays of the sun, all at once. 

“OoooOOoooooo!” said the pink llamas.

Ellie started to float lower –
                               And loooower – 
                                                And loooooo-werrrrrrrrrr

Until she touched the ground!

“Oh gosh! All my floaty magic has been drained out of me!” she said.

Meanwhile the pink llamas started to FLOAT!

“OOoOOOOOOOOOO!!!” said the pink llamas.

Higher –

And hiiiiigh-errrrr – 

And HIIIIIIGH-ERRRRRR!!

Because there were eight of them, none of the pink llamas was going to float away. They just sort of bobbed about at tree height. “This is FUN!” said Baby. “Wheeeeee!” said Aretha.

“Okays!” shouted Dave. “Brings out the Friendymas sleigh!”

“Heave! Heave! Heeeeeeave!” said Oopsie Loopsie, Fireball and the Unrelated Cat Brothers as they pulled a red sleigh around from the side of the house. 

“Ah hallo, Cutie mi amigo,” said El Jasper, the tubby unrelated cat brother. “Eet ees very excellente that we meet again!” 

“Aweh!” said Fireball. “Cutie! It’s lekker to see you ‘ere buddy! Look! We’ve made a Santy sleigh for Dave!”

El Punky, El Jasper, Fireball and Oopsie Loopsie then used a length of pink ribbon to attach all eight floaty pink llamas to the sleigh. And the sleigh began to rrrrrrriiiiiise up into the air. 

“That’s FANTASTIC!” said Cutie. “It is EXACTLY like Santy’s magic sleigh!” 
“And now we needs PRESSIES for Trevor!” beamed Dave. “Brings them on out, Digi-darling!”

“Come along! Come along!” said Digi, emerging from the front door.
“That’s it! Come along! Spit-spot!”

And behind her marched the twenty-seven kittens. All of whom were wearing adorable little green hats and green trousers!

“Elves,” explained Digi to Cutie.

Each of the kittens was dressed up as a Friendymas elf and each of them carried a present for Trevor. Every single present was nicely wrapped in brightly-coloured paper and every present was something they knew
Trevor would like. 

“This is a book!” said Mask to Cutie.
“This is a hat!” said Tiddles to Cutie.
“This is a jam sandwich!” said Socko to Cutie.
“This is a pair of KNICKERS!” said Sookie to Cutie.
“I is Elvis!” announced Figgy as he passed by Cutie.

“Elves,” corrected Digi, “you are ELVES.”

“I is Elvis!” repeated Figgy, ignoring his mother. “I wanna be your teddy bear! Uh-huh! Uh-huh!”

This made Cutie laugh a lot.

“Thang yew verra mush! Elveys is leaving the building!” Figgy cried, before catching up with his sisters and brothers.

The kittens all put their presents in the back of the sleigh. And then everyone stood back to admire their work. It really did look a lot like Santy Claus’s sleigh, all laden down with nice presents and drawn by eight reindeer who just happened to be pink llamas wearing hats with twigs on their head.

Dave very carefully hopped on board the flying sleigh and settled down. He held on to the ends of the pink ribbon that tied all the pink llamas together and said, “Okay little amazing little pinky llama-llamas! Forward!” 

“Remember how we practiced,” said Ellie to the pink llamas. “You all have to work in unison, left-right-left-right.”

“LLAMA-LEFT-RIGHT- LLAMA-LEFT-RIGHT!” repeated the pink llamas. They moved their left legs all at the same time and their right legs at the same time.

Can YOU do this, small children listening to this story? Can you? Can both you move your legs at the same time when Mommy says LLAMA-LEFT – RIGHT – LLAMA-LEFT – RIGHT? 

Let’s try it!

LLAMA-LEFT!
RIGHT!
LLAMA-LEFT!
RIGHT!
LLAMA-LEFT!
RIGHT!

Very good, small children listening to this story!  If you were a flying pink llama with twigs stuck to your head, you too would be flying along nice and evenly by now!

And that is precisely what happened! Dave and the pink llamas practised flying. They went LLAMA-LEFT – RIGHT – LLAMA-LEFT – RIGHT to go forward and RIGHT-RIGHT-RIGHT-RIGHT to go right. And then LLAMA-LEFT- LLAMA-LEFT- LLAMA-LEFT- LLAMA-LEFT to go left. 

“Ba-doop! Ba-doop! Ba-doop! This is FUNS!” exclaimed Dave as he flew through the air with his sleigh full of presents for Trevor. “Okay! Now DOWN pleases!” 

And all the pink llamas pushed their noses downward and the sleigh came to a gentle halt in front of Digi, Cutie, Lemon, Ellie, El Punky, El Jasper, Fireball, Oopsie Loopsie and the twenty-seven elf-kittens.

“That was AMAZINGS! Breep!” said Dave. “This is going to WORK! We will give PRESSIES to Trevor and then he will KNOW that Santy is reals! Meep! Meep!”

Dave was really very pleased with himself that his clever plan was going to work.

As it started to get dark, Dave grew increasingly excited. He couldn’t wait to deliver all the presents to Trevor and to make him happy. The little kitten-elves danced and everyone sang Friendymas songs.

(Fazzy, please sing this bit to the tune of “Jingle Bells”)

Friendymas! Friendymas!
Friendymas is here!
Give a hug!
And get all snug!
And let out a large cheer! OH!
 
Tinsel! Lights! It’s a delight!
I hope it never ends!
I love to see
And love to be
With my friendy-massy friends!

Did you like that song, small children listening to this story? See if you can get your Mommy to sing it again! And this time join in with the “OH!” at the end of the first verse. AS LOUD AS YOU CAN! And then give a big cheer at the end of the second verse! LIKE THIS!

Friendymas! Friendymas!
Friendymas is here!
Give a hug!
And get all snug!
And let out a large cheer! WOOOOOOAH!
 
Tinsel! Lights! It’s a delight!
I hope it never ends!
I love to see
And love to be
With my friendy-massy friends! YAAAAAAAAAY!!!

Finally, just as the sun was setting, Dave decided it was time to go. “Okay everyones! Ba-doop!” he said with great excitement. “It’s time to go and deliver pressies to Trevor! Meeeeeep!”

And he leapt into the sleigh with great excitement and everyone clapped. Dave was so happy.

And – as she was clapping – Lemon noticed that one of her paws was stuck to the pink ribbon. 

And the pink ribbon was attached to the sleigh.

Which was attached to the flying pink llamas.

“Uh-oh,” said Lemon. “Also, help.”

She turned to Cutie. “I’m COVERED IN GLUE!” she cried.

Cutie noticed Lemon’s panic and went to help her. 

“Here we goes everyone!” said Dave, picking up the pink ribbon in his sleigh.

“Wait! Wait!” cried Cutie. “But no-one could hear him over all the 
celebratory hullabaloo. 

Cutie tried desperately to pull the ribbon out of Lemon’s paw. He pulled on her OTHER paw and pulled and pulled and pulled her in the other direction. 

But it didn’t help.

And then he realised that his paw was now stuck to Lemon’s paw. Lemon looked deep into Cutie’s eyes and repeated. “I’M COVERED IN GLUE, CUTIE. I AM COVERED IN GLOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

“And heeeeeeere we goooooooo!” said Dave. 

“LLAMA-LEFT – RIGHT - LLAMA-LEFT – RIGHT!” said the pink llamas.

“Not yet! Not yet!” squealed Lemon.

“Nooooo!” cried Cutie.

But it was too late, the sleigh began to lift up in to the air, with Dave laughing and everybody clapping and the pink llamas chanting. Lemon realised to her horror that her feet were leaving the ground and that she was dragging Cutie with her. 

“Stop! Stop!” she cried.

“What’s going on back there?” asked Sporty the pink llama.

“Aaaaaargh! It’s a scary angry bear! Being chased by an even more scary red panda!” replied Ginger the pink llama, getting completely the wrong end of the stick.

The pink llamas all panicked in unison. Instead of going left and right and left and right they just RAN. In all directions. All at once. 

The sleigh went speeding through the air. 

“Woooooaaaaah!” cried Dave. “What is you doings?! Pinky llama-llamas! Slowy down! Slowy down!”

“Help! Help!” cried the pink llamas, trying to get away from Lemon and Cutie, who they thought were chasing them and being fierce.

“Stop! Stop!” cried Cutie and Lemon as the sleigh went in crazy loop-di-loops and spun around and around in mid-air. Dave desperately tried to hold on, but it was going too fast and he fell out! Fortunately for him, he fell directly on top of El Jasper!

“Ah, we meet again Rumblecat Dav-eeed my friend,” said El Jasper, catching Dave expertly. “Once again, theeee Unrelated Cat Brothers come to theee rescue.”

Meanwhile, the sleigh went on and on, dragged behind the panicky pink llamas. Lemon tried to let go but she was COVERED IN GLUE. The pink llamas flew over the top of the Forest of Imminent Peril, and Cutie and Lemon were dragged through the tree-tops, startling owls and squirrels and bats and birds and monkeys!

“Ooo! Ouch! Yaroo! Ow!” squealed Lemon, as she was smacked in the face with branches!

“Aieeeee! Oof! Ooya! Ouchie!” squawked Cutie as he got leaves and pine-cones and birds-nests in the face!

The sleigh went upside down right over the Fizzy River and ALL of the presents that the elf-kittens had carefully wrapped dropped right into the water with a PLOP-PLOP-PLOPPITY-PLOP!

“Ooooh noooo!” said Digi, as she watched from the ground.

“Poor Trevor!” said Ellie, as she watched all of his presents fall into the river.

“Ooooh! This is nice!” said the fish and the eels and the frogs in the river, as they unwrapped Trevor’s hat and book and underwear and jam sandwich and took them for themselves.

“You give those back, you stupid frogs!” shouted Lemon, waving her fist at the creatures in the river, but this just panicked the pink llamas even more.

“She’s getting ANGRIER!” they cried and put on a burst of speed, flying right into a nearby waterfall. 

There was a SPLOOOOOSH!! Followed by a CRAAAAASH!!

Well.

Eventually, the eight pink llamas, Cutie and Lemon emerged from the water, thoroughly soaked. The sleigh was RUINED, the pink llamas could no longer fly and all of their woolly hats were lost.

The trudged out of the water and made their way to the despondent crowd who had seen the whole thing. Dave looked downcast and the kitten elves were all clustered around Digi, looking very sad.

And it was at that very moment that Trevor the tortoise turned up, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Oh, for goodness sake,” he said. “I saw the whole ridiculous charade. I have never in my life seen anything more ridiculous.”

“But... but... but... Trevor,” stammered Cutie. “We only wanted... we only wanted to make you happy.”

“I KNOW what you wanted,” snapped Trevor. “You wanted to make up silly stories and make me look as silly as you. Well I’m sorry,” he continued, “but I just don’t believe in Santy... in Santy... that is... Oh my goodness... That is... I mean to say...”

Cutie was puzzled. Trevor seemed to just trail off. Trevor’s mouth gaped open and he was looking in absolute amazement at something behind Cutie, behind Lemon, behind Dave. Behind everyone.

Can you guess what Trevor was looking at, small children listening to this story?

Can you guess WHO Trevor was looking at?

I bet Mommy can guess!

“HO! HO! HO!” said a jolly voice behind Dave. Everyone turned around and everyone GASPED.

“Santy Claus!” said Dave, who was still wearing his Santy Claus outfit.
“I could say the same to YOU!” laughed Santy. “My goodness! What a WONDERFUL OUTFIT! You look just like my cat in the North Pole!”

“Mr. Santy Claus!” said Cutie, pulling on Santy’s red coat and trying to get his attention. “But why are you here? Why are you letting us see you? We thought you had special invisible Friendymas magic?”

“Well! My goodness! That IS a lot of big questions!” replied Santy. “What a curious little red panda bear you are!” His face creased with kindness and he leaned down low to talk to Cutie.

“I have heard a lot about you,” he whispered. “From a very special witchy friend of mine in Porirua. She told me that she loves you very much and that I am to take special care of you.”

Cutie gasped, “Mommy?” he asked.

“Now then,” said Santy, looking around. “I hear tell there is a VERY SAD little tortoise here, and that he hasn’t had a present from me in YEARS and YEARS.”

Everyone turned to look at Trevor. “Oh. Um. Well,” he stammered.

“Can I have your name, my friend?” asked Santy, gently. 

Trevor squirmed. “Oh. Sure. Um. My name is Trevor Tortoise. Middle name, ‘Reginald’,” he continued.

Santy produced a huuuuuuuge scroll from out of the inside of his enormous red coat. He unfurled it and the end of it went flapping along the ground. “Trevor Tortoise... Trevor Tortoise...” Santy mumbled, as he ran his finger down the list. 

Santy looked up. “There must be some mistake,” he declared. “I’ve been delivering presents to your house for years!” he said. “Right to your tortoise shell, didn’t you see them there?”

Trevor’s eyes opened wide. “To my SHELL?” he asked. “But I stepped out of it years ago and then completely forgot where I left it,” he explained. “I haven’t been able to find it since 1972.”

“That IS a long time,” said Santy. “But I’ve been delivering there every year. I can tell you exactly where it is. Just follow me.”

And they did. All the friends and all the pink llamas and all the little elf-kittens all trooped along behind Santy as he led them into the Dappled Dell. He pulled back some fast-growing ivy and there was Trevor’s shell, hidden behind the dark green leaves.

“Oh my GOODNESS!” said Trevor. “My home! My home! Oh my GOODNESS!” he repeated.

Trevor stripped off the lovely jumper that Ellie had knitted for him and jumped back inside the shell. “Oh wow! This is AMAZING!” he gushed. “I haven’t been in this shell in 39 years! It’s a little tight around my waist, but it still fits!”

“And that’s not all,” said Santy, his eyes twinkling with delight. “Look at what is right next to it!”

Right there, still wrapped in shiny paper were presents dating all the way back to 1972. Trevor began frantically unwrapping them. “Oh my word!” he said, “Look! It’s a Rubiks cube! And a Vanilla Ice album! And a poster of Fonzie!” 

Everyone looked at their grumpy little friend, now happy and excited and full of the spirit of Friendymas. Cutie turned to Dave whose tummy had started to PURRRRRRR-RRUHHRRR-RRUUHHRRR and then he turned to Ellie, whose floaty powers were starting to return. Ellie hovered a few inches above the ground and smiled at him. Then Cutie smiled as he looked upon the twenty-seven kittens, their mouths agape as they stared at Santy. 

And then he felt a tugging on his paw. It was Lemon.

“All that water washed away the glue,” she grinned. “I’m not COVERED IN GLUE any more.” And with that she gave Cutie a big hug and a kiss.

When Cutie looked at her again, she was not yellow any more. Her fur had turned quite pink all over. 

“I think I’m blushing,” she explained. “It’s not going away yet though. I may be pink for a few more days.”

The two held paws as the stars in the sky shone extra bright, and Santy led everyone in good natured song. Someone produced hot chocolate with marshmallows from somewhere, and mugs were passed around. Santy winked at the sky, and upon this signal, gentle snowflakes began to fall on the magical realm. 

“Snow!” said Dave. “I has never seen it befores! Hee hee hee! It tickles me whiskeries!”

Santy smiled at Cutie. “It just so happens I have some presents to deliver to some wonderful small children listening to this story,” he said. “Would you care to ride with me on my sleigh Cutie? I promise it won’t fly upside down like yours, and I can drop you off at home, just in time for Christmas morning.”

“Christmas?” said Cutie. “Do you mean Friendymas?”

“I mean whatever you want me to mean,” replied Santy kindly. “Christmas, Friendymas – it is just the time of year when we all remember to let out all of the love we keep inside our hearts.”

Cutie turned to Lemon. She gave him one last hug and said goodbye. Dave gave Cutie big lickies and then Ellie wrapped her arms around Cutie and allowed her sunbeam magic to flow into him. And then Cutie found himself being picked up by Santy and the two rode his sleigh up into the night air, where the snowflakes danced about them.

Cutie looked down and saw all of his friends waving and wishing him Merry Friendymas as he flew up, up and away to the magic door. 

Santy dropped him off in Porirua, and Cutie was AMAZED to find that Santy could shrink himself to fit through the magic door, and then UN-SHRINK himself on the other side. Santy pulled presents from his enormous pockets and left them with care for Hani and Zay with a chuckle.

“They are going to LOVE these,” he smiled, as he rubbed his long white beard, thoughtfully.

Cutie stretched and let out a big yawn. “Oh, I am so sorry,” he apologised.
“That’s all right,” said Santy. “I think it is time for you to be tucked up in bed, my little friend.” And with that, he scooped up the little red panda in a hand the size of a shovel, and then gently tucked him up right behind Zay.
Cutie could feel Santy’s special Friendymas magic flowing through him. 

He was suddenly filled with love for all of his friends, and for all of his relatives, but especially for Zay and Hani and Mommy and Daddy. He was glad to be home, warm and safe in bed. 

“Merry Friendymas, Cutie,” whispered Santy, as he tiptoed from the room to return to his sleigh. 

Cutie sat up in bed, and as he did so, he could hear Santy’s sleigh bells and his friendly voice in the distance,

Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now Prancer, and Vixen!
On Comet! On Cupid! On Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!

And Cutie heard him exclaim as he rode out of sight, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

And Zay never even woke up.