The presents will actually be mailed tomorrow, Santa tells me. The smaller one should be opened right away but the larger box will have to wait for Christmas to be given your rapt and unwrapped attention. If you disobey, and your leatherheaded old keepers don't discipline you severly enough first, then your presents will automatically turn into either coal or pink fluffy Dougals that won't fit (You dodged THAT bullet last year, but maybe not forever, so be good!). We have ways, means and powers you never dreamed of, even with the obsolete equipment they give us!

Sorry if you got so much story that you couldn't always tell which were actually the clues, but they were there. If it wasn't quite the same guessing game you had last year, I hope it entertained you as well as the heap of presents undoubtedly will. The Boss will be watching the threads to grade us on our job performance in order to reward or punish us with next year's assignment. Unfortunately, as Mudcat Secret Santas are revealed at the end of the year, the elves you encountered this year can not be assigned to Mudcat again, but don't ever stop believing in either us or in Santa, who DOES always get to be a recurring character.

The weekend gig went well, and Nottapha Sprite is already trying to put pressure on me to take an offered job to front a house band at Murray's, but as stingy as Santa can be, between The Boss and the Union, I'm guaranteed year-round globe-trotting employment of some sort. I guess I'll be heading home soon. Jones and Bishop kid me about developing a bit of a local accent, so I guess it's getting to be about that time.

You've cast a far better shadow than most I've had to walk in, so thanks again.


Your shaking-loose, half packed Scout-Elf,
Elfish Pressently