Mrs. Claus’s Surprise

She wore a red-and-white Santa outfit. And she was driving a team made up of the eight spare reindeer.

"Hee-hah! Giddy-up, my honeys!" Mrs. Claus urged.

The spare reindeer looked as fit as ever. They came at full steam. Snow swirled around their pounding hooves.

Santa’s mouth fell open as Mrs. Claus pulled up beside him.

"Mrs. Claus! Goodness! What a surprise!" Santa said. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, dear, I heard you had a problem," Mrs. Claus said.

"We do, we do. A whopper. But I thought all the spare reindeer were in the hospital."

Mrs. Claus smiled. "They were. Flat on their backs until Dr. Winters came up with a — cure, you might say. And then I did a little wheeling and dealing about giving their stable a new paint job. You really should see it, Santa."

"We can talk about that later, my dear. But right now I’d like to know why you’re here."

"Well, I thought we could load up my sleigh and I’ll — go with you. If you don’t mind."

Santa clapped his hands. "Mind? Why should I mind? That’s a terrific idea! You really want to go, don’t you, my dear?"

"It would be a hoot. A real hoot."

"All these years and you’ve never once said anything."

"Well, wouldn’t a passenger have made the sleigh too heavy?" Mrs. Claus said. "So, dear? What do you say?"