Things have taken a turn for the worse at the Pole now that Toy Santa has declared all of the children naughty. All of the elves were chipping away at the coal while the impostor Santa, who is singing a demented version of "Jingle Bells", and his soldiers watched over them.
"Dashing through the snow, in a strip-mining machine," Toy Santa sang. "Flatten the hills we go…."
Toy Santa stopped singing and marched over to one of the groups. "Come on! Put a smile on that face, little troll!" He taunted. "Wait a minute. I got a joke. This'll cheer you up."
One of the tinsel football elves, Rudy, looked up at him.
"Knock, knock!"
"Who's there?" Rudy asked.
"Aren't you?"
"Aren't you who?"
"AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO GET BACK TO WORK?!" Toy Santa bellowed. "ALL OF YOU, YOU LITTLE IDIOTS! BACK TO WORK!"
Curtis, who watched the entire thing, slipped away from his coal station without being seen by Toy Santa or the soldiers.
"Okay, I've got to get the real Santa back," he said to himself. "But how can I go to him?" He then got an idea. He hurried over to Quintin who was in a coal station at the very back of the workshop.
"Quintin, I need something to get to Santa," Curtis said urgently. "I have to bring him back here to stop Toy Santa."
Quintin looked around, hoping Toy Santa or the soldiers weren't looking and whispered to Curtis, "I have jetpacks in my department. You can use one of them, but be careful. We've been trying to fix them up and they have been failing after each test run. I hope you'll get the real Santa back."
Curtis thanked Quintin and rushed over to RD to grab a jetpack. He then ran over to the stables without being seen, took a deep breath, flipped the switch, and off he went.
Meanwhile, Scott, Ella, and Lucy were sitting at the dining room table playing games after Laura, Neil and Charlie went to bed. So far, the three have played Chutes and Ladders, Connect Four, and Clue Junior. Now, they are playing Go Fish and it was Lucy's turn.
"Got any twos, Uncle Scott?" Lucy asked.
"Hmmm," Scott said as he looked at his pile. "Go fish."
Once Lucy got her card, Ella perked her head up. "Do you guys hear something?" She thought she heard someone screaming, then crashing onto the ground.
"What was that?" Scott asked.
"I don't know," Lucy answered. Ella shrugged and got up from her seat to check out the noise. Scott got up as well.
"Do you girls want some more hot chocolate?" Scott asked his niece and daughter.
"Mm-hmm," Lucy nodded.
"Yes, please," Ella added.
As Scott went to the kitchen for more hot chocolate, the doorbell rang.
"Would you get that, girls?" Scott called over his shoulder.
"Yeah, sure," Lucy said as Ella replied with, "Okay, Dad." The sisters walked up to the door and opened it to find Curtis at the door brushing snow off his coat.
"Is S...Scott here?" The elf asked.
"Who are you?" Lucy asked him.
"Curtis, a friend from...Buffalo."
Ella then realized that this was the elf Scott told her about. "Oh, yes, Curtis! It's good to see you. My dad has been telling me about you."
Curtis smiled and shook hands with Ella as he replied, "Your dad has been telling me about you, too. You really have grown since the last time I saw you."
Lucy looked at him curiously. "Are you an elf?" She asked.
"Of course not!" Curtis laughed. "Why would you ask such a silly question?"
Ella mouthed, "Curtis, your ears!" and pointed to them just as Lucy asked, "How come you have pointy ears?"
Curtis tried to come up with a good excuse. "It's because I never ate my green vegetables." He leaned over at the seven year old and said, "Do you eat your green vegetables?"
Lucy put her hands over her ears to make sure they were still round, then feeling frightened, she called out, "Uncle Scott!"
"Don't scare my sister like that!" Ella snarled at Curtis, giving him a small punch on the arm as the two followed Lucy in the dining room.
"Yeah, I'm right here," Scott called out. "What's wrong?"
Scott walked into the dining room as Lucy hid behind him and saw Curtis coming inside.
"Oh...Curtis! What are you doin' here?"
"There's a little trouble at the...plant," Curtis managed to say.
Scott turned to Lucy and reassured her, "It's okay. Curtis is a very old friend of mine. We have a large, uh... firm. We work together in…"
"Buffalo," Curtis added.
"Buffalo?" Scott questioned. The elf nodded. "We work together in Buffalo. So…we're gonna talk about business."
"What business?" Lucy asked curiously.
"Well, it's business that's none of your business," Scott said.
"Come on, Luce," Ella said as she took her sister's hand. "Let's get you to bed. It's already late."
"Okay, Ellie," Lucy agreed. She turned to Curtis and said, "Good night, Curtis."
"Good night, Lucy," said Scott and Curtis at the same time.
"What's up?" Scott asked the number two elf once the girls were upstairs.
"Toy Santa's gone completely out of control!" Curtis exclaimed. "He's locked up the elves, shut down the workshop, he thinks everybody's naughty and he's gonna give everyone coal!"
"Why didn't Bernard come here to tell me about this?" Scott asked.
"He's under house arrest!"
"Bernard?!" Scott exclaimed in disbelief.
"You need to fly back with me to the North Pole to save Christmas!"
"He can't, Curtis," Ella admitted as she came back downstairs.
"I have no magic left. I'm out of magic. Look." Scott showed the elf his watch.
"Grrrr!" Curtis grunted. "I thought you had Comet."
"Yes, Dad!" Ella said. "You can fly back with Comet."
"Come on!" Scott said as the three went out to the backyard. "Hey, Comet. We just…"
The three stopped in their tracks once they got to the backyard. Ella put her hands over her mouth. "Oh my gosh…."
"Comet?" Scott asked in disbelief. His reindeer had candy bars all around him and his stomach was bulging. Comet groaned when he saw Scott walking toward him. "Comet? Look at me. Look at me! Comet...!"
Comet looked at Scott in shame.
(Yes, Santa?)
"What are ya doin'?" Scott groaned in disbelief. "You're not supposed to eat sugar. It's bad for you."
(I didn't eat all of this chocolate.)
"What do you mean, you didn't eat this?" Scott asked the reindeer. "Who did?"
(Um...a squirrel.)
"A squirrel?!"
The reindeer nodded.
"Get this," Scott began. "You gotta fly Curtis and I back to the North Pole."
(We're going home?)
"Yeah, tonight."
The reindeer groaned just as Ella walked up to the sickly reindeer.
"Okay. Ella and I will help you up." Scott grabbed one side and Ella the other. "All right? Ready, honey?" Ella nodded. "You've got to help me a little here."
"Okay, Dad," Ella said as she kept hold of the reindeer. "One, two, three, pull!"
The father and daughter grunted as they tried to lift Comet up, but he wouldn't budge.
"Good," Scott grunted again. "Okay, we almost got it."
"It's okay, buddy," Ella crooned to the reindeer as she scratched his ear.
"Okay, now," Scott said as he knelt in front of the reindeer. "Can ya move anything?"
The reindeer began to grunt, but it certainly wasn't the grunting Ella and Scott hoped for.
"Um, Dad?" Ella said in an urgent voice. "Hate to say it, but…."
"Fire in the hole! Get away! Come on," Scott shouted. He led the two out of the way just as Comet let out a huge whopper.
"Whoa!"
Curtis whistled.
"Oh, my…" Ella said as she held her nose and fanned the area with Scott.
"Eat some roughage, will you?" Ella and Scott shouted out at the same time.
"Oh, what about the jetpack?" Scott inquired.
"It kinda burned up on reentry," Curtis admitted.
Scott was growing frustrated and desperate to get back to the Pole. "What am I supposed to do? Grow wings?"
"Wings?" Ella asked in thought. Then, she had an idea. "Wait a minute, Dad. That's it! We can get the Tooth Fairy to bring you back."
The three went back inside the house to work on the Tooth Fairy plan. Curtis tied one end of string around the doorknob to Neil's office and the other to Scott's tooth.
"I hope he doesn't have too many stops to make tonight," Curtis said hopefully.
"Same to us, both, Curtis," Ella said.
"Okay," Scott said as he held on tight to the banister. "Let's just get it over with."
Ella counted. "One, two...three!" She swung the door wide open before slamming it shut. But nothing happened. Scott's tooth was still in his mouth. The slamming door did wake Laura and Neil.
"What's going on down there?" Neil asked sleepily. Ella explained the situation to her mother and stepfather. Neil told them he also had an idea. He asked Ella to quickly run to the kitchen to grab the toaster. Not long after, Scott was standing at the top of the stairs with a front tooth tied to a toaster that was gripped in Neil's hands. Ella, Curtis, and Laura waited nervously.
"Are you sure about this?" Laura asked her husband.
"What? The old toaster trick? When we were kids we used to do this to get a little extra cash. Works every time!" Neil said excitedly. Ella couldn't help but smile at her stepdad's childish side. It was good to see him have a little fun at times.
"I can't watch this," Laura said as she covered her eyes.
"You ready, buddy?" Neil asked Scott.
"All right. Let her rip," Scott said as he held onto the banister once again.
"One...two...three!"
As Laura uncovered her eyes to catch a glance, Neil tossed the toaster. Scott tumbled down the stairs and landed by the bottom railing.
"Oh, Scott!" Laura rushed over to her ex-husband. "Scott, are you all right?"
"Dad, are you okay?" Ella asked in a worried voice as she started helping her mom get her dad up.
"Mom!" Lucy called from upstairs.
"Yes?" Laura replied as Lucy walked up next to Neil.
"I lost another tooth," Lucy said happily. "Should I put it under my pillow?"
"Yes!" Everyone answered in unison.
