Travelog for: Nick

Hi, I'm Nick, a retired Santa Claus. I had a great life, having spent some time in Taipeh, Taiwan where I've met Pandamao, later on traveling with her to Europe. But then I've got a slight speech impediment (my tongue used to stretch out very long which is not possible anymore) and I had to retire. I have been suffering since my retirement, no fun anymore, no kids around with bright eyes and laughter. So I decided it's time to finish with this retirement thing and go out again, bring joy to the world and have some fun. Here I am - do you want me to brighten your life? Write to Pandamao (my agent) and I'll spare no effort to travel to you.

Yours affectionately,
Nick

Today three of us (Womat, Reinhilde and I) checked out our future travel compartment. We're not sure if we all will fit in. One of these days, soon, we will travel to BunTraveler. I'm really happy, she promised to show me a famous Christmas shop. This will be great, retirement - NO MORE, I hope to make children happy again soon.

Today we found a parcel in front of the door, the whole gang couldn't wait to open it. Wonder who will be in it? We expect IZ A Dorable and IZ A QT .... and yes, here they are, happy to be out of the travel box. Now we have two pairs of twin bears.

Oh dear, today we squeezed hard into our travel envelope, I hope the trip is quick and we'll soon reach BunTraveler. Well, I would do anything to make children happy, so what's a few days in limited space 

HoHoHo!  I am sooooooooo happy to be out of that envelope.

Although light and airy,  I am afraid someone must have squeezed us in between so much other mail that I almost lost my breath.  Whew!  I felt my tongue roll right out of my mouth.  Oh dear me---there it goes again!

My host opened the envelope and let out a scream.  I am afraid I startled her a bit.
She said,  oh dear me Sir Nick you have left your tongue sticking out of your mouth.  She asked if there was something she could do---in between all her giggles---she did seem worried. 

No fear I said.  Just give me a good squeeze and it will roll back into place where it is supposed to be. 
Gently she squeezed me and I let out a sqeek and she jumped with more laughter and my tongue then flapped back between my lips. 
Good,  said my host---I would hate to see you loose your tongue over such a long journey.  You have much to talk about.

Tomorrow my host promised photos sessions.  I am not very good with a camera so I will employ here to take all the photos for me.

My friends Reinhilde and Womy were great traveling companions and we had much to discuss while locked away for our voyage.  Now that we are set about to have cool refreshments and great conversation, I believe it will be a very good holiday indeed.

Miss U---Greetings from the ole Nick!

Soon as we arrived,  stretched our little legs,  then I got to sit on top of the car for a group photo. 
I am hanging out with my traveling companions most of the time but soon we will have seperate visitation days with our host.  She mentioned she didn't think that Reinhilde and Womy would enjoy the Christmas Shop so they might go off and play and do other things for the day.

I rode up front in this big van for awhile with my traveling companions .  The view was wonderful.

Then we stopped at the sign for the entrance of Veneta.  We sat and got our photos taken by our wonderful host.  Then she told us we were in for a big surprise as we were going to stop at  a small farm booth that sells strawberries.

OH YUM!!  BERRIES------  They are wonderful. 
Here you will see that I did not wait and my manners got away from me as I helped myself to one of these luscious berries.  Oh heavenly! 

Reinhilde was not very impressed and wondered what the fuss was all about.  Reinhilde doesn't like strawberries much but enjoyed the sweet smell all around.

Womy LOOOOOOOVES strawberries and I'm afraid left her manners at home and dove right in for some of these yummy morsals.  We had to drag Womy out as we were afraid if Womy ate too many berries there would be no room for strawberry shortcake later in the day. 

Oh my goodness!  Can it get better than this?  Cream and cake to go with these?  Oh---goodness---I will be very jolly with a big tummy by Christmas if I keep up this pace. 
Who would guess my host loved so many wonderful foods?

Don't worry about me---I am enjoying my holiday to the fullest.

I guess when you arrive here in America it is the custom to give group hugs.  We met a very friendly toyvoyager called "Jelly" and she welcomed us with open arms. 
It's rather nice actually.  Reinhilde and Womy also felt very welcome indeed.

Nick has been hanging around and not doing much for a couple of days.  He has been very lazy and doing a lot of sleeping lately.
I guess that is what little St. Nicks do in the off season.

You can't lay about forever so Nick decided to go out looking at new options of taking the toys this winter to the children of the world.  He walked into a new place in the city that said they offered views of new "Toy Haulers."

Nick got a big chuckle when he realized how large of a toy hauler it was.  This could hold a very large amount of toys and be a whole lot easier to drive.  hahahahaha!

Nick was called to one of his adventure toy stores in another city today where there are a lot of bears, bunnies and other toys being made for children to be sent out at Christmas.

The elves were building Nick a new little sports car for him to travel in for summer.  He rather liked the little sporty car---especially the color. 

Nick then checked out some of the new items that were being built.  There were a lot of new characters that had to be put together by adding their insides to each and then they all had to be dressed accordingly to what each child ordered and then packaged away for the holidays.

Supervising is a busy job for Nick this time of year.  He doesn't get to lay around and take in the sun every day---just some days.

Nick found the area where some of the new characters were sitting and thought that his helper elves have made some handsome toys indeed.

The elves have been very busy making clothes for the characters as well.  It is a tall job for getting ready for Christmas.
When he arrived he also noticed that someone left a very important message on the board for all to read.  It's a very important thing to remember when you order a bear from Nick for Christmas.

Hosting Nick doesn't seem to be too demanding at this time.  We know he is enjoying his stay.

Well, you can't blame a guy for hanging out in a hammock if it is 95*F here in the summer. 

A small grape soda and a little hotdog was a great snack for sitting in the shade.

Ahhhhhh! 

Sunday proved to be a fun day for Nick.  He got to travel by Van to the famous Oregon Santa (Nick) shop called
"Christmas Treasures."
http://www.christmas-treasures.com

Nick shares his journy there and by adding the link he hopes you can view the largest Christmas tree in Oregon when it is decorated with lights.  It was much too large for Nick to get a full view in his little camera.

The visit for Nick was a good one because he got to talk to all the little characters there inside the store.  He told them that every little boy and girl that got a new toy would also get a little note with each character telling them about toyvoyagers and how they could all have fun being little voyagers one day. 
Yippeee!  Hooray!  Wonderful!  They all cheered.
Everyone was very happy that Nick came by today to tell them the good news.  Everyone was looking forward to Christmas.

Walking around the store Nick ran into the infamous "BigFoot" and he scared the daylights out of Nick. 
EEEEEK!  There is a monster after me!

Nick was back in his hosts car quickly and more than ready to travel on.  Nick wasen't taking any chances.  This is a big place with very large characters everywhere.  All seem quite friendly but that big guy was scary.

Nick had a very nice visit with all.  If you look close you can see my host in the window.  HeeHee!

EEEEEEEEEK!    Time to leave this place!  I wonder if they know these ugly guys are hanging around trying to scare everyone?

When Nick arrived back at the house with his host, he was exhausted after last week from traveling in heat of 98* and 100*F.  He had to do some shopping for more refreshments.

Nick filled the shopping cart quickly.  He was delighted to be able to have all these little sweets.  He looooves those little hotdogs too and stocked up on those as well. 

Nick realized that he didn't pack his jammies when leaving home and asked his host if he could go shopping for something to wear in the evening around the house. 
Nick's host took him to a great little shop that had a lot of very special clothes for toyvoyagers. 

He found the cutiest sock hat for sleeping in.  Then he found some blue bear jammies that fit just right.
He almost lost his tongue  when he ran into these darling little tiny leopard slippers.  Of course his host just rolled her eyes    when she saw the slippers but agreed he could get them.

Nick thought you would  enjoy seeing how lovely everything fits.  He feels so special.