Dancer

I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with Dancer today. The number of mall appearances was down significantly from what I had done Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and even Monday. Because of that, I took the smaller sleigh and only required one reindeer. On the days when I have a lot of appearances, I usually take a team of 4 reindeer and a couple of elves. Because it was a slower day, we also had some time between appearances and were able to eat lunch together.

I had picked Dancer to join me because he seemed a little down when I had last spoken with him on Sunday at the North Pole Village Christmas tree lighting. He wasn't obviously depressed but he definitely was not his normal self. That struck me because Dancer is usually the life of the party. Great sense of humor, can chat it up with anyone about anything, never met anyone he didn't like, always a smile on his face... and a little bit of a prankster. So I decided Sunday evening that I would ask him to join me on today's trek.

And sure enough, Dancer was not his normal self this morning. Although he did brighten up a little when I asked him to join me today. But at lunch I went ahead and asked him what had him so down. He was hesitant to tell me at first, embarrassed that he even cared about such things. Turns out that he is a little upset that he only has 6% of the vote in the "Favorite Reindeer Poll" on my blog. Dancer said that he is used to being the most popular reindeer around the North Pole Village and it really threw him off that he is one vote away from being in last place. We talked for a while. I kept steering the conversation back to how well liked he was by thousands of elves & reindeer at the North Pole. And I made a point to have him focus on how blessed he is. By the end of the day, he was definitely on the rebound... but I don't think fully there. I kind of wish now that I had not put the poll up. I didn't imagine that any of the reindeer would have their feelings hurt. And I don't believe any of the others really care. Nevertheless, I'll discuss it with them later tonight as we have a flight planning meeting in an hour.

I am certainly not going to endorse one reindeer over another in the poll... but, a few votes cast Dancer's way wouldn't hurt. So if you want to share the poll with some of your friends...