MARIA is questing!
Episode 1/29: Garland wore her beautiful green scarf, an early Christmas present knitted by her reindeer twin sister Jingle, which Jingle gave to Garland when they were both selected by Santa to train to be his new sleigh pullers! Garland looks a little pensive, because Jingle is in a different sleigh pulling training team, and it's the first time these twins have ever been separated. Maybe Santa is cleverer than he looks, because separating the troublesome twosome might reduce the likelihood of the twins getting up to any mischief during their pre-Christmas sleigh pulling training... Famous last thoughts Santa, eh?

MARIA is questing!
Episode 2/29: And so it came to pass...night after night...that Garland snuck surreptitiously out of the barn while all of the other little reindeer trainees on her team were sleeping, just to practice her sleigh pulling skills. Garland did think she was improving? But the sleigh felt especially heavy one night, and try as she might, she couldn't get it to budge, even an inch. She wondered if she was getting weak from lack of sleep, or if Santa himself had bunked down for the night in the little training sleigh...?

MARIA is questing!
Episode 3/29: Garland was nigh on ready to give up, after trying so hard to pull the sleigh, and barely able to move it an inch! But she took a deep breath, centred her little self, and tried one more time. Wheeeeeee! Garland was airborne! At last! But somepet was cutting zzzzzzzz's in her empty sleigh??? Did Santa snowaway, err stowaway, on board? With a glance over her shoulder, Garland confirmed that it was MARIA asleep in the sleigh. No biggie! They'd be back at the barn before MARIA even woke up, as long as Garland could remember how to land the sleigh... but... with great alarm Garland suddenly remembered that the reindeer trainees' lesson on How to Land a Sleigh was actually scheduled for tomorrow... HELP!!!!!!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 4/29: So, just to recap, we have a snowaway err stowaway on board. And the maelstrom created by the polar vortex emanating from the Northern Orb is no less than the crisis associated with the internet going down just as you are about to finish a Quest! But Garland remains calm. A sure indication that she is in shock or she is a closet drinker! On the one hand, Garland is still riding the waves of euphoria from realising that she really CAN fly! On the other hand, Garland has lost all sense of where and when she is flying. This is probably not a good thing? Is it?

MARIA is questing!
Episode 5/29: Fortunately for MARIA, Garland managed to land the reindeer training sleigh without too much difficulty, unless you count bits breaking off the sleigh, and the snowaway err stowaway MARIA being unceremoniously tossed out a difficulty rather than a minor inconvenience? But the sun is shining, and Garland is still in one piece!
MARIA is also probably still in one piece, thinks Garland, wondering to herself whether MARIA's scowl will stay that way permanently if the wind changes? But Garland quickly reminds herself to suppress that uncharitable thought! Afterall, they seem to have had a soft landing in an interesting new place, with funny looking chubby little birds waddling around everywhere...

MARIA is questing!
Episode 6/29: As most of the funny little chubby birds waddle off, to do whatever it is that funny little chubby birds do, one sticks around, planning to introduce himself to Garland. Garland was the biggest creature the funny little chubby bird had ever seen, until MARIA stood up and frightened all of the little bird's friends away! The little bird takes comfort in the fact that his cheerling friends have come out to welcome Garland and MARIA, and decides to stick around and introduce himself too.
A little dazed from their rather unorthodox landing, Garland is thinking about Santa, and wondering how to get him to come and rescue her. Fortunately MARIA is finding it rather difficult to maintain a scowling countenance, with refreshments being offered around! So MARIA proceeds to introduce MARIA and Garland to the cheerlings, and explains to Garland that her little bird friend is actually a penguin, so they have probably crash landed at the South Pole! Garland has no idea where the South Pole is, so she is not unduly concerned, but when MARIA tells Garland that there is no such thing as Santa, Garland fervently wishes it had been her reindeer sister in the sleigh, instead of mean old MARIA!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 7/29: The little reindeer Garland's tales about Santa and about Christmas have gotten the cheerlings thinking... They wonder if it might be possible to bring Christmas to the South Pole? And they begin to imagine what preparations they could make? For Garland is adamant that those who don't believe, won't receive!
The cheerlings have had plenty of time to explore the South Pole, especially the old abandoned research stations and weather stations, so the little white cheerling starts thinking about using the contents of some old boxes and crates they found stashed away in the back of a dusty old closet...

MARIA is questing!
Episode 8/29: Garland is delighted when her new little friends take her to an abandoned research station to check out the dusty old boxes and crates filled with gift wrap and Christmas decorations! Hoping to lure Santa to the South Pole, by cleverly creating all of the commercial trappings of Christmas, Garland teaches MARIA and the little South Pole pets all about everypet's favourite Christmas past time - wrapping all of the gifts!
Oi! Garland! You're not supposed to eat that fancy bow!!!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 9/29: Garland is most impressed when her little South Pole friends show a real aptitude for the fiddly work of wrapping, sticking down and tying ribbons. Maybe flippers and fingers do have a small advantage over hooves (but only on this particular occasion!)? Meanwhile, MARIA thinks that Garland has given MARIA the funnest job of all. Squashing down the gifts so that the lid fits on! Poor little pengi had tried to do it first, but he just wasn't up to such a difficult task!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 10/29: As the gift wrapping extends late into the afternoon, Garland and her little band of helpers begin to weary... Garland wonders how MARIA is faring, because they haven't heard a peep out of MARIA for quite some time?
What none of them realise is that MARIA fell into one of the gifts while MARIA was squashing it down, and our industrious little wrappers stuck the lid down without realising that MARIA had fallen inside! Never mind, at least MARIA will feel warm and cozy inside that big box!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 11/29: Garland and her South Pole friends finish wrapping the last of their little gifts, and begin piling them up, one on top of the other. But just as one of the little cheerlings is about to place another gift on the pile, they hear a strange knocking sound coming from inside one of the larger gifts! The cheerling quickly undoes the ribbon, and who should pop out of the gift, but MARIA? The little pets are all amazed, because they think that MARIA has mistaken this Christmas Quest for the last Magic Quest, and that MARIA has been working on a magic disappearing trick all of this time! Bravo! they all clap and cheer a rather surprised looking MARIA...

MARIA is questing!
Episode 12/29: As Garland, MARIA and the South Pole pets were taking an afternoon stroll across the snow they stumbled upon something quite unexpected. A box of Santa costume pieces! They all turned to MARIA for an explanation, and MARIA explained rather sheepishly that MARIA had found the box stashed away in the bottom of Garland's training sleigh, and had taken it out for a closer inspection.
Garland was a little concerned at first, thinking that MARIA had pulled Santa's whiskers and eyebrows off before stowing away in her sleigh, leaving poor old Santa too bald to keep his face or head warm back at the North Pole! But MARIA quickly explained that this fur did not belong to the real Santa, it belonged to the Santa's helpers that have their pictures taken with little pets at Christmas time, in strip malls throughout PnF land!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 13/29: Garland and the little South Pole pets removed the Santa fur from the box, for a game of dress-ups, each one of them hoping they could trick the others into thinking that they were the real Santa. But that wasn't to be, as the Santa dress up pieces were far too large for the little pets, and actually looked pretty silly!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 14/29: The little pets discarded the Santa fur in disappointment, realising that none of them was quite big enough yet to make a good pretend Santa for this Christmas at the South Pole! Garland sighed, wishing her reindeer twin sister Jingle was here with her, because Jingle was always the one that came up with the best ideas...!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 15/29: Sensing his help was required, a wise old walrus that had followed his quack's advice and migrated to a warmer climate at the South Pole for the winter, stepped up to help the little pets out! And didn't he cut a dashing figure, bedecked with hat, spectacles, bushy eyebrows and fluffy whiskers?, barked the wise old walrus in delight!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 16/29: Garland had been really looking forward to helping Santa select his Christmas tree this year, and was missing her reindeer twin sister Jingle dreadfully, so MARIA and the little South Pole pets banded together to cheer Garland up, by taking Garland on their own scavenger hunt... For a Christmas tree, no less!
Being a good sport, Garland played along with her little friends' attempt to distract her, not really holding out much hope of actually finding any sort of tree in the barren Antarctic snow!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 17/29: The little pets traversed the Antarctic mountains and valleys, searching high and low for any sign of vegetation, let alone a tree! Their hopes rose with each new mountain they climbed, and sank with each new valley they entered... Until MARIA finally had an epiphany! For MARIA had suddenly realised that if there were any trees in any of the Antarctic valleys, they would probably be buried deep beneath the snow!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 18/29: And so it came to pass that all of the little pets stopped traipsing and started digging, in the very place where MARIA had had the epiphany... And they dug, and they dug, and they dug... Until, at last, the cheerlings smelled something they had never smelled before in their young lives. A tree! Albeit a frozen fish tree??? This did not deter any of the pets at all! For a tree by any other name would still smell as fishy to them!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 19/29: Garland, MARIA and the little penguin all set about helping the cheerlings scrape the snow away, to fully reveal the pungent frozen fish tree in all of its malodorous glory! And once they had done so, all of the little pets danced a Happy Dance around it, drunk on the fumes of their prized Christmas tree!
But to his credit, the little penguin showed great restraint, bravely resisting the urge to nibble on their fishy Christmas tree! And as a reward for his sacrifice, the other pets all promised the little penguin that he would have the first bite out of their tree, once Christmas was over!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 20/29: Although they are not old enough to have seen their first Christmas yet, Garland and her reindeer twin sister Jingle have often talked about and associated Santa with Christmas. So Garland hopes that Santa will find her and MARIA at the South Pole, if they can make the South Pole look a lot like Christmas! In her limited experience, Garland sees Christmas in terms of decorations, presents, a Christmas Tree and Santa, of course! The trick will be to make them all come together at the South Pole in time for Christmas?
But as Garland was taught at Santa's reindeer school, just take one step at a time. So for this step, Garland has convinced MARIA and the little South Pole pets to come on a scavenger hunt with her, searching for Christmas decorations!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 21/29: The little South Pole pets lead Garland and MARIA to a remote plateau, which seems to be littered with Christmas ornaments? MARIA asks the little South Pole pets if they have any idea how the ornaments found their way here, and the cheerlings fess up to having found them in a dusty old box in a derelict weather station. But when the cheerlings tried to carry the box home with them, the bottom fell out of the box, scattering the ornaments across the snow. Even though the ornaments were very pretty to look at, they didn't taste very nice, so the cheerlings decided to just leave them where they fell...

MARIA is questing!
Episode 22/29: Garland, MARIA and the South Pole pets begin gathering up the pretty ornaments. A slow process indeed! Because all of our little pets seem to be taking an inordinate amount of time inspecting and admiring each ornament they pick up! While Garland would like to hurry them along, she understands their interest and their curiosity, and she has in fact wasted a few moments herself trying one on her antler. Nudging MARIA with her antler, she asks sotto voce, do you think this makes my head look big?

MARIA is questing!
Episode 23/29: Finally, Garland, MARIA and the little South Pole pets finish gathering up all of the pretty ornaments! They place them all in a big pile, wondering why they didn't think to bring a bag of those delicious gingerbread cookies with them on their expedition?

MARIA is questing!
Episode 24/29: After dusting off and polishing all of the old ornaments the cheerlings and the little penguin had found near an abandoned research station, wrapping some little gifts for one another, finding a tree hidden beneath the snow, and choosing a pet to wear what remained of the old Santa costume, Garland declared it was time to decorate their Christmas tree!
While MARIA and Garland's new friends took great care adorning the Christmas tree and placing their little gifts for one another underneath it, Garland regaled them with the story of the nativity, which their father had passed down to Garland and her reindeer twin sister Jingle, before they left home to join Santa's reindeer training school.

MARIA is questing!
Episode 25/29: MARIA, the cheerlings and the little penguin were all so impressed with Garland's tale of the nativity that they decided to surprise Garland, by putting on a nativity play just for her, so that she wouldn't feel so homesick! They used the Christmas carol Away in a Manger that Garland had taught them to sing for their script.
As they prepared for the curtains to open on their play, MARIA and the little South Pole pets figured they pretty much had Christmas nailed! Christmas tree decorated? Tick! Little homemade gifts for each other? Tick! A big fat dude wearing the musky old Santa beard and hat? Tick! Christmas carols? Tick! And most important of all, loved ones to share Christmas with? That's a BIG tick!!!
And so it came to pass that Garland forgot to feel homesick for one glorious evening, thanks to the kindness and compassion of her new found friends!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 26/29: While telling her friends all about Christmas, Garland left out, accidentally on purpose, one key point... That Santa won't come until ALL of the little pets have fallen asleep!
So it came to pass, on the night before Christmas, MARIA, Garland and all of the little South Pole pets (except one sleepy little cheerling) were wide eyed and bushy tailed with excitement, late into the sunny South Pole Summer night!
MARIA wanted to practice every single one of the Christmas carols Garland had taught her new friends, so they enthusiastically filled the air with a cacophony of discordant sound! Until, a helpful little kaleidoscope of antarctic butterflies joined them, fluttering the beat of each carol, until the pets' voices all finally began to meld together in perfect harmony!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 27/29: And so it came to pass, that Garland enjoyed the longest, most exhausting and truly wonderful night before Christmas in Garland's young life, (which also happened to be Garland's only night before Christmas, to date)! But in spite of Garland's best efforts to stay awake ALL night, her eyelids eventually fluttered shut, for what felt like only seconds, before her sleep clouded mind registered a very loud and very jovial greeting:
Ho Ho Ho, and a Merry Christmas one and all!
Garland snapped awake, shaking her head to clear it, and noticed that her little friends were all jumping with glee! And no wonder! For Santa had arrived, and was having a quiet chat with MARIA, who was dumb struck that Santa had travelled all the way to the South Pole to find them! But Santa just laughed at MARIA's surprise, and asked MARIA who MARIA thought it was that delivered Christmas presents to all of the little lambies in New Zealand every Christmas?

MARIA is questing!
Episode 28/29: While the little reindeer and the cheerlings were sound asleep, Santa had created a special Christmas present for the cheerlings! A magnificent ice palace, where the cheerlings could store all of their Christmas decorations and make gifts for all of their South Pole friends for many Christmases to come!

MARIA looked on in awe, secretly wishing they had an ice palace of their very own, to use in their PnF Art!

And so it came to pass that wise old Santa already knew that MARIA had been a good little pet all year long, and Santa had had a busy night creating not just one, but two ice palaces, so Santa was able to grant MARIA's secret Christmas wish on the spot, by gifting MARIA an ice palace of their very own!

MARIA is questing!
Episode 29/29: Having distributed his sack of gifts, bid farewell to MARIA, and left the Cheerlings to settle into their new home, Santa hitched up his team of reindeer, and took to the skies... closely followed by his errant little Garland, pulling the newly repaired practice sleigh that Santa needed for training the younger reindeer.
As the visitors pulled away from the South Pole, and its perpetual Summer sunlight, night began to fall, filling the sky with stars, and revealing the Northern Twilight Orb in all its splendour, to guide Santa home...
And as Santa disappeared into the sky, MARIA heard the faint echo of Santa's voice bouncing off the ice:

Ho Ho Ho, and Merry Christmas one and all! And MARIA, don't forget to race on home to swap places with another pet, as I'm sure that another one of my young reindeer will need help too!