An ice cream surprise, and a joke

Happy 4th of July to the people of the United States.

Happy U.S. Friendship Day to the people of the Philippines.

I am a citizen of all nations, so I honor all the holidays in my own way.

Tomorrow, for example, will the Independence Day celebrations in Algeria, Cape Verde, and Venezuela, and Unity Day in Rwanda.

My greetings in advance to all the peoples of those lands.

Yesterday, I mentioned that I was going to Peri and Milla’s house, expecting an ice cream surprise. I got one, but not the one I expected.

The visit started off with us chatting about recent events, and the upcoming wedding of Peri’s nephew Alegas to Lotina in a couple of weeks. Then Peri brought out some ice cream to taste.

I was nervous – remember the cauliflower cheese? – but I took a spoonful.

It was good. Very good, in fact.

“What flavor is this?” I asked.

“Why don’t you ask the maker?” Peri replied. Then his oldest son, Peri junior came out of the kitchen.

“You created this?” I asked.

He smiled.

“It’s wonderful,” I said. “What flavor is it? It seems familiar. Yet it seems unfamiliar at the same time.”

“Strawberry banana split,” he said.

Well, we complimented him again and again.

I also congratulated Peri senior on having a child who seems destined to enter the family business.

Today, meanwhile, we were busy working on the new fireworks factory. How appropriate for the day the Americans set off fireworks for their Independence Day celebration. The last factory burned down last year (I’ll tell you more about that at a later date – and about a certain silly polar bear).

Some of the elves were busy putting up walls. I was in the basement, painting the new floors much of the morning.

When I went home for lunch, Mrs. Claus said it looked like I got more paint on me than on the floors!

After a good scrubbing, then a good lunch, it was off to the candy factory to meet with the fore-elves to talk about ways to increase production. Demand is increasing all around the world. But we also talked about ways to make the candy healthier. (Don’t worry, I talked them out of trying to make spinach candy canes for this Christmas!)

Between the meeting, and sampling a few of their candies, much of the afternoon was gone. I did stop at the post office on the way home to pick up some more letters. I worked on them until dinner time.

And now here it is nearly bed time.

You can’t imagine what it’s like going to bed while the sun is still shining so brightly, but that’s the way it is here at the North Pole in the summer. Sun 24-hours a day!

So I’m off to kitchen for a cup of hot chocolate and a couple of cookies (raisin molasses tonight), then it’s off to bed.

Oh, before I go, there was a joke Peri’s son Leg’lil told me:

“What do reindeer always say before telling you a joke?

This one will `sleigh’ you!”

Ho! Ho! Ho!