Santa and His Merry Companions

By Donna Marie Ferro

Santa and His Merry Companions. This book, Santa and His Merry Companions, completes the trilogy, beginning with The Reindeer Dog and then the book, Diego and the Goofy Witches of Beigua. This story, Santa and His Merry Companions, begins on Christmas Eve, when Santa and everyone at the North Pole are preparing for the big night to deliver presents around the world. Santa checks his mail one more time, and there is a letter from his friend Peony Penguin, who lives in the Antarctica. She tells Santa not to come because something strange has been happening there. Birds are turning into icicles and dangling in the cold Antarctica sky. This has never happened before. She does not want Santa and the reindeer or Carlo the Official Reindeer Dog to end up like popsicles! But Santa has a plan that he shares with this pal Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Rudy, as Santa calls him, is afraid and is worried that this plan will not work and that they will get stuck in the sky forever and ever! After a long discussion, Rudy agrees with the plan, and Santa contacts his friend Diego, the famous pelican of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Diego will lead the caravan, as he can fly low to the ground, and he can signal to Rudy the weather conditions while the reindeer are pulling the sleigh with Santa and Carlo. Alongside Diego will be Zorbella, one of the goofy witches of Beigua, and her snow globe, Sophia, giving the latest weather forecasts; and zooming with them will be all the goofy witches of Beigua, their witch friends, and the banshees. Santa is hoping that one of the witches or banshees will figure out a magical potion to stop the freeze and allow Santa to bring presents to the animals and birds of the Antarctica. But Santa knows this is risky business, and he has never experienced such a situation, other than the usual bumpy sleigh rides and landings, including the numerous times the goofy witches, such as Florinda, who flies upside down, as well as the famous acrobatic pelican Diego nearly crashed into his sleigh! Will this plan work, or will they be all frozen in the Antarctic sky?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984563071

Donna Marie Ferro

Donna Marie was as an educator in the California Community College System for 40 years. More than half of her career was dedicated to developing programs and services for students with disabilities. During her career she was a champion of bringing equal access in education to students with disabilities. Her testimony on this subject in Sacramento was used by California lawmakers in drafting and passing legislation which became a forerunner of the national Americans With Disabilities Act. Her belief is that everyone should have equal access to education. She is now retired and has developed a new passion and new career as an author. She is grateful for the rich legacy of her Italian family both here and abroad and she is reminded daily of them and all they gave to her and now some of those stories have been brought to life in her books. She welcomes the readers and says, "Come join me on my adventures and those of the Goofy Witches of Beigua! I will be waiting for you on my balcony in the little village of Alpicella just below the hills of Beigua where the little old owl named Luna hoots at the moon!."

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by Donna Marie Ferro.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2018912967

ISBN:            Hardcover                             978-1-9845-6309-5

                      Softcover                                978-1-9845-6308-8

                      eBook                                     978-1-9845-6307-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/29/2018

Xlibris

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773983

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1     The Mysterious Message

CHAPTER 2     What Will Santa Do?

CHAPTER 3     Santa and His Merry Companions

CHAPTER 4     The Amazing Discovery

CHAPTER 5     Crash! Boom! Baam!

CHAPTER 6     The Reunion

CHAPTER 7     Flying Home Sweet Home

Translation Guide

Acknowledgments

To all those who believe in being the sun and not the clouds and to all those who believe in the power of forgiveness, which heals the heart and brings the greatest gift of all—LOVE

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Chapter 1

The Mysterious Message

O nce again, it was Christmas Eve, and everyone at the North Pole was busy hustling and bustling, getting ready for the big night. The sun was rising and glistening on the fresh, new snow. Santa could hear the elves jibber-jabbering away as they were packing the toys in heavy sacks and placing them into the sleigh. Meanwhile, Carlo, the official reindeer dog, was practicing his final woofing of Christmas carols while Mrs. Claus happily hummed and played the piano. Carlo was so excited to perform tonight for Santa and the reindeer. The reindeer would shake their antlers from side to side, keeping time to the music while the sleigh glided across the wintry midnight sky.

Santa patted Carlo on top of his curly, furry head covered by a cap hand-knitted by Mrs. Claus while he was BOWWOW-WOWING Christmas tunes. He loved to watch Santa at the reins while they gently landed on rooftops. POOF! Santa, in a flash, was down the chimney to deliver presents. Carlo looked forward to landing on top of bamboo tree huts, thatched roofs, and igloos. Carlo thought Santa was the super-duper magical elf of all elves! No matter where the children lived, somehow, Santa always had a way of landing the sleigh, even on the teeny-weeny tropical islands or on the very tip-top of a mountain! No child was ever forgotten by Santa on Christmas Eve.

Carlo sang carols, while the elves were busy at their workshop, whistling and chattering with one another as they placed toys into sacks. Melville, chief elf of the North Pole, had the very important job of checking all the presents, making sure they were wrapped with bright-colored bows and ribbons and had the correct name tag.

After Carlo had finished practicing his singing, Mrs. Claus went outside and brought buckets of carrots and special homemade goodies and treats for the reindeer. She knew this was their long, long journey as they circled the globe, and she wanted to make sure their bellies were full of yummy treats. They loved her tasty cinnamon cookies and her star-shaped gingersnaps. Oh, how she loved to watch the reindeer eat her homemade treats. Rudolph had finished, and his tummy was full to the brim. Now it was time to get back to business—checking his nose beams. He could make his nose so bright that it lit up the evening sky, as if the North Star were shining upon them. He had quite a special talent and loved to show his pals, the other reindeer, the new nose tricks he had been practicing all year long. The reindeer all began clapping and whistling their approval for Rudolph’s latest and greatest new tricks and the new special signals that he would give to them.

Everyone at the North Pole had their job to do. Santa had his own chores, including checking the mail one more time to see if there were any last-minute requests. Santa found one more letter. He started to open the letter that had an opening