When Holly was done with patrol for the day, Boba and Omega asked their parents if she could come over for dinner, and they approved. It wasn't everyday they had such a special guest over for the holidays.

Holly set her book next to her plate, and the kids were quick to notice it.

"What's that little book you're holding, Holly?" Gabby asked.

"It's a special notebook my dad just gave me. The Naughty or Nice book." Holly explained. "When I'm the new Santa, I'm gonna have to check the lists twice. And this book helps me keep tabs on people's deeds throughout the year so they can be weighed in the database, and we can determine whether they make the naughty or nice list. For example… Mona Heartwood."

The book flipped its pages, and Holly looked into it. According to it, Mona did well in school, ate all her vegetables, she was always hugging everyone, especially Hunter, and she was always extra friendly to the ducks when she fed them the best corn she could find.

"Pretty Nice List material, I'd say."

"Is that good?" Mona asked.

"Yes. Being on the Nice List means my dad's gonna have something great in store for you Life Day Morning."

"Why did he never visit me before?" Mona asked.

That was a question Holly didn't have the answer to.

Mona had never celebrated the holidays before. She didn't even know what holidays were before she was rescued. But then she learned about when her birth mother almost ruined the holidays with Scare Mare and Queen of Mean, and Mariverde told her that Santa did not visit "disobedient, weak little brats." Of course, Mariverde was cruel enough to deny a child a happy holiday. And there was no way Mariverde would let Santa into her home.

In other words, Mona never got to try to stay up waiting for Santa or listening for his sleigh bells, bake cookies to leave for Santa, hang stockings for Santa to stuff, decorate a tree for Santa to leave gifts under, or to wake up on Life Day morning and see what Santa left for her.

"Why didn't we think of this before?!" Anakin said. "Holly, do you know where Mariverde lives now?"

"Unfortunately, as hard to believe as it sounds, I don't, and neither does my dad."

"How is that possible?"

"I'm not sure. It probably has to do with some kind of cloaking spell or the fact that she never stays in one place very long, so we can never pinpoint a location for her, so my dad can't even leave her a lump of coal, which is more than she deserves."

Suddenly, Goldie got worried.

"What if she tries to destroy the holidays again this year?" Goldie asked.

"Don't worry. After last year, my parents have upped security big time since then. For the sake of kids everywhere and kids at heart, we're not having a repeat of that. And I'll make sure to let my dad know I'm gonna have a serious talk with Firework's parents about Krampus."

At the Hall mansion a couple days later, the family was working on some decorating. Master Luminara came by to help out too. Since Mr. Hall asked her if she would be Vince's godmother, she'd been coming around often to mentor Vince, which helped him a lot in his emotional state. Luminara tried to get through to Jacob too, but he didn't seem interested.

Jacob opened a box and pulled out a little blue ball. It was shiny and had little white snowflakes on it and a cute little snowman painted on it.

"What's this thing?" Jacob said.

"Careful!" Vince whisper-yelled, quickly and gently taking the ball from Jacob's hands.

Vince looked at the ball Jacob had been holding. He looked at it like it was a long-lost friend. Tears came to his eyes then, and both his father and Luminara were quick to notice. had the same look on his face when he looked at the ball.

"I sense something is very special about that ball." Luminara said more as a statement rather than a question.

"This isn't just a ball." Mr. Hall said, looking at the ball.

Mr. Hall looked at another box and found a blue felt covered book. He pulled it out and opened it to a page where he pointed out a picture. In the picture, Mr. Hall was holding a baby wearing a My First Life Day onesie, and beside him was Vince's mom showing the curious little baby the same ball Vince was holding now.

"My mom made this ornament for me for my first Life Day present." Vince said. "She loved to make decorations for the holidays. When Tatiana moved in, she got rid of nearly all my mom's stuff, including so many of her old decorations. She told Dad it was an accident, but she really did it just to torture me."

A tear fell from Vince's eye as he looked at the ornament in his hands. How Tatiana missed this ornament when she cleared out Lydia's belongings, Vince didn't know, and he didn't care either. This ornament was so precious.

Vince found a special spot on the tree just for that ornament.

"Your mother was a talented woman, I can tell." Luminara said. "And she still means everything to you."

Vince didn't say anything.

"Is my mom gonna be coming for the holiday?" Jacob asked his grandfather.

Jacob still didn't know the truth about his parentage, and his family still hadn't worked up the courage to tell him.

"I'm afraid not, Jacob."

"Why?"

"Well… Jacob… sometimes people enjoy the holidays for the wrong reason, and your mother… she was one of them. Now, it's not your fault. Sometimes grownups make bad decisions, and she made the choice of leaving you behind, but we made the decision not to do that because we love you."

Except, Jacob didn't seem to understand.

"Can't we call her and ask her to come?"

Mr. Hall felt bad about how he would need to answer next. After the divorce, he tried to let Tatiana know that if she worked for it, he would be willing to let her share custody of Jacob, but she told him never to contact her again and just to "Keep that useless brat. He's your problem now," but he wouldn't let Jacob know his own mother said that.

"No. That won't be possible either. Even if I did know how to contact her now, she likely wouldn't answer. I'm sorry, Jacob. Your mom isn't coming back."

"Will she come if I ask Santa to bring her?"

"I'm not sure even Santa can do that. He delivers gifts, not miracles." Vince said. "That's a much higher force."

Jacob didn't say anything else. He just kicked a box of tinsel on the floor and ran off.

"Jacob!" Vince exclaimed.

"Let him be, Vinnie." Mr. Hall said. "He needs some time alone right now."

"'Cause that worked so well for me." Vince mumbled, rolling his eyes.

Jacob lay on his bed and looked at a picture on his night table. It was a framed drawing of him with his mom he'd made when he was five; he'd made it for Tatiana for Mother's Day, but she left it behind when she moved out. He even wrote 'Mommy and Me' on it.

Jacob just didn't understand why his mom didn't come back for him after CPS said he could go home. He still remembered how scared he'd been in the group home CPS placed him in, and how they said they would be searching for any living relatives he could possibly stay with. But Jacob was sent back to the mansion before they could reveal if he had any other family.

The little boy cried into his pillow, wishing his mom would walk into his room and comfort him… but that just wouldn't happen.

Vince, on the other hand, sat on the sofa with a sigh, and not because putting up holiday decorations exhausted him.

"Tell me, Vinnie. What is troubling you?" Luminara asked, taking a seat beside her godson.

"It's just… I can't help feeling sorry for Jacob. I know he's a troublemaker, but… I can't help feeling like my family is cursed. At least, the male members. My dad can't seem to have a Happily Ever After marriage, and so far all three of his sons lost their moms in one way or another."

Vince couldn't believe just how awful his family had it thus far. Derek's mother abandoned him, then Derek murdered Vince's mother, and Jacob's mother was a gold digger who used him to get a ring on her finger from Armando Hall and to get into his bank accounts. Even as a child, Vince could tell Tatiana was a terrible mother because she made nannies take care of Jacob so she could shop all the time, and the only attention she ever really paid to Jacob was buying a toy for him so he wouldn't bother her. And in the event the school called to tell her Jacob got into trouble, she never disciplined him; she just signed the notices the school gave her and went back to shopping.

"When my mom was alive, things in this house were a lot different."

The Last Life Day With Lydia…

Five-year-old Vince was so enthusiastic for Life Day that year. His family was having a party with their family and friends, and little Vinnie couldn't wait to see his cousins, and he knew exactly what he wanted to ask Santa for this year.

Vince's dog Archie barked as he ran around the house with Vince, who was holding a sleigh decoration with his Cookie Monster riding in it.

"Incoming blizzard! Look out, Cookie Monster!" Vinnie ran around the couch. "Here comes a big snowy mountain!"

And he dropped the sleigh on the couch.

"Uh-oh! Cookie Monster crashed. Rescue dog Archie to the rescue!"

"Be careful, Vinnie. We need that sleigh for the decorations." Lydia said, placing another ornament on the tree. "Why don't you come here and help with the tree?"

Vinnie jumped off the couch and ran over to help his parents. He picked out an ornament and Lydia lifted him up so he could place it on a higher branch.

"You're becoming a big boy, Vinnie." Lydia chuckled. "You'll be too big for me to carry soon."

"But I'll be big enough to reach higher by myself."

"That's true."

Vinnie loved spending time with his mom during the holidays.

Lydia and Armando Hall always decorated the tree together with Vinnie, while Derek was always out causing trouble. But Vince, he always got special time with each of his parents. His father would take him to the music studio to see singers making their holiday albums, and his mother would take her little Vinnie to the mall to see Santa, which she did later that day.

"Look, it's your turn, Vinnie." Lydia smiled.

And Vinnie eagerly went up to sit on Santa's lap to tell him what he wanted for Life Day. He asked for a new baseball glove to replace his old one after Archie chewed on it. Lydia loved the picture they took of her little boy with Santa. And afterward they went to a cafe to get hot chocolate. This particular Life Day, they had gingerbread cookies shaped like reindeer, and Lydia got one for Vinnie. It was perhaps the tastiest holiday treat he'd ever gotten.

When Life Day Eve came, Lydia read Vinnie a book about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to help him go to sleep so Santa would come. And he was extra excited to wake up on Life Day morning. Vinnie jumped into his parents' bed and jumped up and down to get them out of bed.

"Alright, Vinnie. I'm up." Lydia yawned. "Come on, Armando. Time to get up."

"Not now, Lydia." Armando said tiredly with a snore.

So, Lydia got a little naughty and whacked her husband with a pillow, and Vinnie joined her in attacking Armando with the pillows until he finally agreed to get out of bed.

"Okay! Okay! I'm up."

As expected, Vinnie was excited to open his present from Santa, and in the box, he found the baseball glove he asked for. Vinnie was so happy, but he was also excited to open his parents' gifts. His dad usually gave him music books and other music-related stuff so he could learn to take over Hall of Fame Records someday, but Lydia, she always put a lot of thought into her gifts. Vinnie opened his mom's gift. She got him a very special book. An animal atlas. Since Vinnie was little, he loved sports, but he also loved animals, and occasionally she brought him to work to see newborn animals when a patient's pet had babies, and she showed him how she took care of many different species, whether they had scales, feathers, fins, or fur. It seemed both Vinnie's parents hoped he'd take on their careers when he grew up, but Lydia always told her son that it was his decision what he wanted to be when he was grown up, whether he wanted to be a music producer like his father, a vet like his mother, or a professional athlete or anything else.

Vince pulled that animal atlas out from under his bed and opened the front cover to show his godmother there was a note inside.

Every creature has its path and its purpose, and one thing they all have in common is that each one is important and each one starts out small before it's big and strong. Whatever you decide to do on your path, never forget to take care of yourself so you may take care of others the way you do. This book is my gift for you, but you are a gift to me, my little Vinnie

Love, Mommy

It brought tears to Vince's eyes to read that note for the first time in months.

"I made a lot of bad choices after losing her, but eventually reviving her memories helped me change that. But, I can't say the same for Jacob. He never got to make really special memories with his mom because she literally didn't care about anything but money and herself. Now she's probably looking for some rich sucker to bleed dry, not that she'd have much luck."

"Vince, what did you do?" Luminara asked.

"What makes you think I did anything? Dad took care of her when they got divorced."

It was true. After the divorce, Armando Hall was sure to give a photo to the tabloids, warning wealthy men everywhere not to date Tatiana Hemingway because she was a gold-digger who would trick them into marrying her by pretending to be pregnant with their child. After the way Tatiana nearly destroyed his relationship with his son forever, Mr. Hall wanted to make sure she never did this to any other family in the Galaxy.

"Good. I hope you are aware that revenge will get you nowhere, Vinnie." Luminara said.

"Pfft. Why? It served her right." Vince said. "Do you not remember the scars I had before?"

"I do, and those scars were healed with time and care."

Luminara picked up two pieces of coal from a bag Mr. Hall had set aside for the fireplace, and a poinsettia flower from the decoration. She had Vince hold the rocks in his hands and told him to imagine that the rocks represented his anger and resentment.

"Imagine as long as you hold both of them, it means you keep moving onto a path of revenge. Say… you find the one you are angered by, and then you can hit them with both rocks, but only after you find them, which may take a while."

"And…"

Luminara took out the poinsettia.

"As long as you hold the rock in your hands, you won't have room for the beautiful things you will encounter. You must let go of your resentment…." Luminara had Vince open his hand to extract the coal and replace it with the flower. "To make room for something good."

Luminara got Vince to put the other rock down so he could use one hand to hold the flower's stem, and the other to caress the lovely petals of the poinsettia.

Vince touched the poinsettia's lovely red petals and remembered how much his mom loved poinsettias, and holding this one now felt like a piece of her was still with him. He realized Luminara was right; Tatiana was out of his life now, and it was time to forget about her and focus on celebrating Life Day and keeping his mother's memory alive.

"Fourth batch is ready!" Kara declared, getting a batch of cookies out from the oven. "Twenty-six more to go."

"Mmm. Lemon cookies," Carmine licked his mouth.

"Leave the cookies alone, Carmine." Shmi said.

Why did they need so many cookies, you may be wondering? Thirty batches of cookies was a lot even for a family as big as the one in the Naboo Palace. But, when you add the Heartwood family into the mix, you need quite a few more refreshments.

Now that Garrett made amends with his family, he was ecstatic to celebrate Life Day, or Mele Kalikimaka, as it was called in Lakohi-Hana. In Garrett's family, they'd always celebrated at the beach where it was warm and tropical. In other words, they never had a White Life Day. So, with all the snow coming to Naboo, Garrett thought it would be fun to have his family come see where he lived now, that way Goldie and Mona could celebrate with their new friends too.

"If you didn't have snow," said Goldie. "What did you do for the holiday, Daddy?"

"Well, Goldie. We typically did the usual beach activities, but we had special holiday traditions."

Garrett told his wife and the children about how when he was a kid, his family would make garlands of lots of red flowers, and his mother and aunts would make some of the best coconut cookies ever, and they would make coconut cookie houses which they would decorate with chocolate frosting, caramel chips, nuts, and lots of little chocolate candies. And since it was usually too hot to drink hot cocoa, they made mocha smoothies.

The kids licked their mouths at the thought of such delectable treats. After tasting the smoothies at Garrett's family reunion, they could definitely believe Garrett grew up on fantastic cooking.

"We even had our own holiday pageant where we would tell classic holiday stories through hula dancing. One main difference was this kind involved narration to make it more in the spirit of the holiday."

Garrett's family traditions sounded fun, and he couldn't wait to share his traditions with his family friends.

"What about you, Mom? Did you and Grandpa ever have any traditions?"

Mariposa couldn't remember a lot. She and Constantine only had two, maybe three Life Days together before they got separated. But from what she could make out when she looked back, she and Constantine would travel during that time, which was easy because the cold weather gave him a perfect excuse to wear a cloak to hide his wings. Since they lived off the land and forage most of their days, they couldn't afford all the fancy holiday feasts, decorations, or gifts some other families had. But, Constantine knew how to make things very well. So, using his knowledge of the natural resources and a little tinkering, he would gather beeswax and use it to make candles, which he scented using some of the flowers he and Mariposa gathered throughout the year.

Gathering seeds and drying up petals was good for having things to sell so Constantine could get at least a little money to provide for Mariposa. Nature could only provide so much at a time depending on the environment and the season. But every year, lots of people purchased the candles Constantine made, and Mariposa would sing songs with a lit candle to advertise them.

"I suppose you could say candlelit carols are a big part of my family's traditions." Mariposa sighed.

"And a fine tradition we can revive." Constantine said, bringing out a beautiful blue candle. "I call this one, Luz de Mariposa."

Mariposa caught a whiff of the lovely blue candle; it smelled like peaches and cinnamon, two of her favorite scents, with a hint of grape hyacinth flowers, probably because Constantine colored the wax blue with grape hyacinth petals so it would be blue like her wings. It was even sweeter that her father named the candle after her.

"It's beautiful, Papa."

Mona and Goldie took a whiff of the candle too, and they both loved it.

"Mmm. It smells so good." Mona sighed happily.

"There's more on the way." Constantine said. "With more plants, I've had time to experiment with many aromas."

"Have you ever thought of starting your own shop?" Boba said. "You could make all-natural perfumes and candles."

"Yeah, and Myra's mom knows a lot about starting a business." Omega said.

"I would," said Constantine. Then he motioned to his wings. "Except that would risk exposing my identity as a maricamba. It's too bad… if people could see more of what can be made with natural resources, perhaps more of them would care to protect it."

Mariposa held her father's hand and reassured him things would change for the maricamba race soon. That was her holiday wish.

"I'm just glad this time we won't have to worry about Mariverde ruining the holidays for everyone." Lamenta said.

"It was pretty cool getting to do what Santa does for a day, though, right?" Gabby said.

"True dat." Boba said. "For now, I think Holly's really excited about getting to help her dad out more."

Holly Kringle was happy to head back home today, even just for a little bit. She delivered her latest report to her father, and he told her she could take a breather before heading out again.

So, Holly went to her house to see Nancy Kringle, also known as Mrs. Claus, her mom.

Mrs. Claus giggled as she looked at a little bundle in her arms.

"Peek-a-boo! I see you." sang Mrs. Claus, tickling the little bundle.

"Hi, Mom." Holly said. "Back from patrol."

"Oh, Holly. I'm so glad to see you. How was your first patrol?"

Holly told her mom about how patrol was more exciting than she anticipated, and she ran into some particularly naughty people, including Brittney Parisia.

"Now I know why she holds a record," said Holly. "If it'd been Uncle Krampus she threw that coffee on though…the naughty list would be the least of her worries."

"The things this family deals with every year," sighed Mrs. Claus.

"Anyway…" Holly smiled at the little bundle in her mom's arms. "How's little Kris?"

"Someone missed his big sister. Did you miss your big sister Holly, Kris?"

Mrs. Claus passed the baby boy into her eldest daughter's arms. Holly pushed the blanket from Kris's face to get a better look at him. He looked so adorable in his red and white striped onesie and little Santa hat. Kris stared up at his big sister with his beautiful green eyes, sucking on his little snowman pacifier.

"Did ya miss me, Kris?" Holly cooed, letting her baby brother grip her finger. "I missed you too. Where are Joy and Faith?"

"They're at the workshop, helping the elves test out some of the toys."

"I shoulda guessed. Maybe I oughta go check on them… and maybe take Kris for a walk while I'm here."

"That actually would be helpful, Holly. I've been so busy with Kris, I've barely had time to finish baking cookies."

"You hear that, Kris? Time for a stroll."

Holly grabbed another blanket to wrap around Kris, kissed the baby's head, and got him into a stroller to take him out for a walk.

It was snowing at the North Pole today, so Holly made sure the stroller's temperature control was set to perfection so Kris would stay nice and cozy.

Kris cooed as he saw the snowflakes falling outside his stroller, and lots of elves passing by either working or helping their families prepare for the holiday couldn't help stopping and smiling when they caught sight of the prince of the North Pole.

"You sure attract a crowd, huh, Kris?" Holly smiled, tickling her brother's little tummy, making the baby giggle.

Suddenly, some of the snowflakes surrounding Holly turned silver and took on the form of a little reindeer dancing in the snow.

"Even your magic is adorable!" Holly giggled.

Holly decided to stop by her favorite cafe for some hot chocolate, and to feed Kris his bottle.

Looking down at the little baby as he drank his milk, Holly couldn't help feeling a certain joy even greater than opening a present on Christmas Day. This little baby was a gift on his own. Holly loved her baby brother so much, and as the next Santa, her job wouldn't just be to take over manufacturing and delivering billions of presents every year, but taking care of the family too. Holly had yet to find a suitable husband to give her heirs of her own, but in the event she could not produce heirs of her own, she needed to ensure her siblings knew the ropes of their father's job so one of them could do it. And because her parents were always so busy preparing for the holidays, Holly took it upon herself to look after Kris now that he was two months old.

Kris started crying a little after finishing his bottle, prompting his big sister to pick him up and hold him over her shoulder to start burping him.

"Shh. Shh. It's okay, Kris. Better not to cry." Holly cooed.

Kris burped.

"There we go. Good boy."

Holly eventually made her way to the workshop, where she found two human girls, one about twelve with short hair that was red like Holly's, and the other about seven with brown hair tied in two pigtails. The older one was helping organize the racks, where some of the elves were sewing clothes, while the younger one was testing the firmness and bounciness of the balls being made in the toy department.

"Joy, Faith. Guess who's here." Holly called.

"Holly!" exclaimed the brunette. She ran over to hug her sister.

"Hey, Faith. Having a ball, I see."

Faith rolled her eyes at the joke. Then she looked into the stroller where Kris lay.

"Hi, Kris. Cootchie, cootchie, coo."

Kris cooed once more. Holly pushed the stroller to where Joy was still working with the clothes.

"Hi, Joy. I'm back from patrol."

"Nice to see you, sis. Kinda busy here." Joy said, looking at some dresses. "Why so many people need to ask for such complicated designs, I'll never know. It's times like this I'm glad I don't have your job."

"Well, you might have one of my jobs." Holly said, taking Kris from the stroller. "Like looking after our baby brother."

"Aww. Got another new onesie, I see." Joy said, adjusting Kris's hat. "I hope you guys are paying more attention to making clothes for those who wrote letters than to piling my house with baby clothes."

"Princess Holly," called one elf.

"Yes, Twinkle?"

"We have an early present for the baby." Twinkle said. She held up and shook a little rattle that looked like a little reindeer. It made a sound like it was filled with little jingle bells.

Kris giggled when he saw the rattle, prompting Holly to take it and hold it closer so the baby could play with it.

"Thank you, Twinkle. I think Kris appreciates your gift."

Holly shook the rattle and quietly sang Jingle Bells to her baby brother, making little Kris smile. After a while, though, Kris started to get sleepy, and Holly had to return to patrol. So, she took him back home so he could rest in his crib.

Holly kissed her brother's little head as she swaddled him up and put him to bed.

"Sweet dreams, Kris Kringle." Holly smiled. "I'll see you again very soon."