Some new residents - and jokes?

The celebration was wonderful.

We held it in the repaired great hall. I though we might to repair it again!

Zbigniew Ting and his family and friends got into the spirit of the evening by teaching us all a dance.

It’s hard to describe, but it leads to dancers being tossed into the air between lines of fellow dancers.

Well, it wasn’t long before human, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and even a certain bear were flying through the air.

Some flew a little too high or a little too far, resulting in elves and dwarves hanging from the lights, several broken tables, and a window that has to be replaced.

Fortunately, no one was hurt – not even the bear when he landed in a barrel of cider!

Today was a quiet day.

Zbignew and his fellow humans left us early in the day, flying back to Canada.

Most of the elves, dwarves and gnomes who had come to help also went home.

Some happy news, though.

A number of dwarves and gnomes decided to stay at the North Pole to work with us. Now we'd had gnomes and dwarves with us for short stays and to help out, but we haven’t had gnomes living here here in nearly 50 years – and it’s been a century since we’ve had dwarves living with us.

I am glad to welcome them. They can add so much to life here.

Besides, they might know some jokes I haven’t heard yet. The North Pole elves ran out new jokes a long time ago.

There’s nothing more that I enjoy than a good laugh – except, maybe a glass of milk and some cookies.

Ho! Ho! Ho!