"There's my boy." Santa chuckled when he held his son in his arms for the first time in what felt like forever. "Alright, everyone. Let's get back to work."

Holly was relieved when the notebook was put back together. Now the list could be checked properly, and all the elves and the Kringles could get back to work preparing for the holiday.

Soon T'was the night before Life Day Eve, and Santa's workshop was hustling faster than ever.

Santa rallied all of his children and his wife to help out with the gifts for this year, and he took some time to show little Kris where he worked.

"You see, Kris? The holidays are a busy time. As Kringles, it's our job to keep the holiday spirit alive, and we mustn't forget that the most important gift is our family."

Kris just babbled in response, making his father laugh.

Meanwhile, the Halls were getting ready for Life Day again too. Now that Vince checked out of the hospital, he was able to come home and finally get his gift for Myra ready.

As for Jacob, he was going to clean up his act, starting with cleaning his room when he got home. And when he looked through his toy chest, he found a bunch of toys he didn't really play with anymore, and some other things he didn't use at all. So, he decided he was going to do something with them.

"Daddy? Do we have any wrapping paper left?"

At the Temple, everyone was glad to be back home so they could celebrate Life Day.

Turha was excited as he hung up his stocking so he could wait for Santa tomorrow night with his family.

"I don't wanna jinx it, but I hope trouble takes a holiday this year," said Ahsoka. "Helping deliver gifts last year was exhausting. I don't know how Santa does it every year."

"Well, you've seen how athletic everyone has to get there." Sunheart said. "I imagine they're all well trained."

Just then, there was a knock at the door, which Master Plo answered. A droid came with a package that was addressed to Turha with a note attached to it.

"Looks like someone sent a present," said Ahsoka.

Turha thought maybe Uncle Anakin sent him something, but it wasn't from him. To his great surprise, it was from Jacob.

"He probably sent some kind of a joke." Turha turned his back, not wanting to open the gift.

"Now, Turha. You don't know that." Shaak said. "You should at least read the card."

Turha rolled his eyes. His mom wasn't going to leave him be if he didn't read the note. Plus, he didn't want to go on the Naughty List for disobeying his parents. So, he opened the note.

Dear Turha,

I'm really sorry about all the times I was mean to you. I'm sorry for pushing you, messing up your art, and calling you names too. You're an amazing artist, and I guess I was jealous because you always make the best paintings and drawings in art class. And I guess I was jealous because your mom isn't just a Jedi, she's there for you all the time, but my mom never cared about me, and I just found out my dad isn't really my dad, but that's another story. I've been mean, and I'm gonna try to do better. If you don't ever want us to be friends, I get it, but I hope you can forgive me someday. Merry Life Day. I hope you like this gift.

From, Jacob Hall

Again, Turha was surprised. He wasn't sure what to expect to find inside the box, but he decided to leave it under the tree to open later.

"Why don't you open it tomorrow, Turha?" Ahsoka said. "It'll be Life Day Eve, and one gift to open is tradition."

"Okay." Turha said.

Soon, t'was the night before Life Day, and Santa was getting ready for his round trip delivering gifts to everyone in the galaxy. And Holly was especially excited because this year, she was officially going to deliver gifts with her dad as his co-pilot. She'd ridden in the sleigh before, but this was the first time she'd actually be helping deliver the gifts, and she wouldn't have to search her father's coat for extra cookies he'd been holding out on. Even Santa could get a little greedy when it came to sweet treats.

Most girls probably cannot say they have Take Your Daughter to Work Days with Santa Claus.

Kris cooed as his oldest sister came out, all dressed in her Santa dress, ready to go on her first official holiday run. All the elves cheered for Holly in this big milestone she was achieving

Holly gave her baby brother a kiss and said,

"I love you too, Kris. I'll be back home in time to celebrate Christmas with you."

And with that, Holly boarded the sleigh with her father to officially begin the sleigh ride.

"Good luck, big sis." Faith said.

"Watch for dogs," said Joy.

"Be careful out there, Dear." Mrs. Claus said. Kriss cooed, making his mom laugh. "That's right, Kris. Holly and Daddy are going to work."

The reindeer were all set up, ready to go.

"Would you like to do the honors, Holly?" Santa asked.

"I get to start the ride?" Holly gasped excitedly.

"You've been training all year. You've earned it."

Holly took the reins and psyched herself up. This was a huge honor. The first time starting the sleigh ride; it was a lot of pressure too. One wrong move and the whole sleigh ride would be more than a bumpy ride.

Holly had to really focus on this one. She took a deep breath and got started.

"On Dasher! On Prancer! On Vixen! On Comet! On Cupid! On Donner! On Blitzen!"

All the reindeer stomped their front hooves to signal they were ready on command.

"And last but not least, on Rudolph!"

The red-nosed reindeer stamped his hooves, and Holly snapped the reins to signal all of them to fly. And off they went into the night.

At the Naboo palace, everyone was having a great time making cookie houses, and enjoying sharing everyone's family traditions too.

Constantine lit up some of his beautiful handmade candles, which were impressive to Mr. Heartwood.

"You know, if you need any assistance in marketing these," said Mr. Heartwood. "My Nani is an expert in that field."

Goldie was also happy to finally spend some time with her werewolf family. Now that Ashina knew about her granddaughters, she got to work foraging materials in the nearby woods, and with a little help from Garrett, she wrapped them up to present to Goldie and Mona in the morning. Millie found that she liked hot cocoa too, and Rory… she really liked Crosshair.

Rory even quickly planted a kiss on Crosshair's cheek.

"Bleh!" Crosshair whined.

"Don't look at me, you're standing under the mistletoe." Rory teased.

"Hey, look! Crosshair got his first kiss." Echo teased.

Crosshair, however, hoped he'd be able to live down that he'd just gotten a kiss, even if it was from perhaps the hottest girl he'd ever seen.

Wait, did I just think of a girl as hot? Crosshair asked himself in his mind.

Crosshair didn't despise the idea of love; he saw clearly how happy Tech and Hunter were with their wives, but he didn't really see a point in pursuing romance because it changed his brothers a little in different ways. But he wasn't so sure Rory was his type.

Crosshair was silent again.

"Playing hard to get?" Rory teased. "Somehow that just makes you more attractive."

Rory took her leave from Crosshair, her tail tickling the latter's nose a bit as she took off, making him sneeze.

The kids were all having a great time. Mrs. Heartwood made some of her special coconut cookies for some of the houses, and all the kids loved them, including the Jedi's children.

"These coconut cookies are amazing, Mrs. Heartwood." Gabby said.

"I'm glad you like them, Gabriella. Eat as much as you like."

"Don't mind if I do. If Daddy doesn't eat them all first."

Sure enough, Anakin was getting more crumbs and coconut on his face and his Life Day sweater than into his mouth. And the babies were having a good time too.

Luke and Leia looked so cute in their red and green onesies, and Charlotte looked absolutely adorable in her little reindeer outfit.

However, as fun as Life Day festivities were, it got late sooner than expected, which meant it was time to go to bed to wait for Santa.

"Do we have to go to bed now?" Mona whined.

"I'm not even tired." Pearl whined.

"Do you kids want Santa to come or not?" Padme said.

So, the kids all got ready for bed. Of course, they didn't neglect to leave some plates of cookies for Santa. Boba and Omega made sure there were some snickerdoodles, those being Holly's favorite. And everyone went to bed. The kids however, brought pillows and blankets to the den to wait for Santa, Goldie's cousins wanting to see if they could spot him.

Holly helped her father deliver gifts at the speed of light. Stuffing stockings by the pair, presents by the chimney with care, all while children were sleeping here and there. Seeing so many places from high up above was such a beautiful sight, and there were lots of great treats left for Santa, which Holly helped herself too from time to time, especially snickerdoodles.

So many gifts to deliver, so little time.

They delivered presents to Equinaro, Coruscant, Balith, Earth, even the Outer Rim. With a few vortexes, traveling between worlds came easy. Even the Jedi Temple received a visit from Santa and his daughter.

Eventually, they came to Naboo too.

Holly was very quiet as she entered the palace with her father to leave gifts. She saw all the kids fast asleep, the little ones looking so adorable when they were sleeping.

Holly licked her mouth at the sight of the plate of snickerdoodles.

"How sweet, you guys remembered my favorites." Holly said quietly, taking one to munch.

R2, however, beeped catching sight of Santa and Holly.

"Shh!" Holly shushed R2 and patted his dome. She left him a present too. "Merry Life Day, R2. Merry Life Day, everyone."

And with that, Holly left with her dad to continue on to the next house.

On Coruscant, in the Hall mansion, Jacob was fast asleep in his bed, when someone came in and decided to get a little mischievous.

"Cootchie, cootchie, coo!" Vince sang, tickling Jacob awake.

Jacob immediately started laughing, begging Vince to stop.

"Cut it out! Please!" Jacob laughed.

"It's Life Day morning! Santa came. Let's go wake Dad."

Jacob, however, was sure there would be nothing under the tree for him but a lump of coal this year. But, he got out of bed to go wake up the rest of the house just for the fun of it.

A little later, Vince's relatives arrived. His aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents all came to celebrate with him. Grandma Hall did remark though how she was glad Armando finally came to his senses and got rid of "that gold digger Tatiana." But then she wondered why Jacob was still there.

"Grandma, it's Life Day." Vince scolded, holding Jacob's shoulders. "And Jacob is not his mother. He's staying here, and he's gonna be a good boy, right Jakey?"

"Uh-huh." Jacob said.

So, like a lot of kids, everyone was excited to open presents. Vince found his from Santa, but Jacob didn't bother to look… until Vince said…

"Look, Jacob. Here's one for you."

Vince gave the present to Jacob, who was sure it was just a gift from a family member. But he opened it anyway, and inside the box, he found a blue balloon dog, a plush one. The one kind of balloon animal that would last forever.

"A balloon doggie stuffy!" Jacob hugged the toy. It made a squeaking sound.

This was just the item Jacob asked for. When he was smaller, he'd gotten a balloon doggie at a birthday party, and he was so upset when it popped. But this one, it would never pop.

"Who's it from?" asked Aunt Elena.

Jacob looked at the label and had a look of great surprise.

"Santa?"

Jacob was confused. He'd done something really bad and a lot of other stuff this year. He didn't understand. Why did Santa give me a present?

And then, Jacob found a letter from Santa.

Dear Jacob,

There's always room on my list for those who learn from their mistakes and try to make up for them. Giving away the things you didn't use to those in need and learning to see who your family truly is, you've earned a spot on the nice list this year. Keep up the good work.

Merry Life Day,

Santa

Jacob felt some tears come to his eyes. He'd overheard people saying one great act of kindness could make a huge difference, but Tatiana always said that was just "mumbo jumbo poor people make up to feel better about their pathetic lives." Now he saw she was wrong big time. He looked at his gift again, and he held the toy to Vince to share it with him as he was opening a gift for his real dog.

Maggie barked and went crazy chewing on her new squeaky hamburger.

Vince found it sweet that his nephew was sharing his toy, something he never did before. This really was a Life Day miracle for the Hall family.

Comedia pulled the blanket off of Ki-Adi as he was still sleeping this morning.

"Come on, Dad! Get up!" Comedia shouted, jumping up and down on the bed until her father was bounced onto the floor. "Are you okay?!"

"I'm alright." Ki-Adi said, picking himself up.

Comedia and her cousins all went crazy opening their gifts.

"Don't eat the paper, Comedia." Ki-Adi said.

Comedia spit out a piece of paper.

"I don't eat paper."

Comedia was excited when she opened her present to find a bunch of fun hats inside. A sparkly top hat, a jester hat with jingly bells, and propeller hats in all different colors.

Vince looked at the time. The Windu family still hadn't arrived yet. He decided to send Myra a text and ask her if she was alright. And then he had a big smile on his face when she replied.

"Everyone, you're not gonna believe this." Vince said.

"Is everything alright?" Mr. Hall asked.

"Yeah. Myra's gonna be a little late, but for a very special reason."

A little earlier…

Myra and Kade got up to open their gifts. Of course, they had to wake their parents first, only when they got to their bedroom, they weren't there.

"That's weird." Myra said. "Where could they be?"

And that was when Mace entered the room.

"Oh, good. You're both awake." Mace smiled.

"Dad? Where's Mom?" Myra asked.

Mace just smiled and told the kids to come with him.

Myra and Kade pondered what Mace had taken them out from the apartment for, not even bothering to tell them to get out of their pj's…. Until they realized they were being brought to the hospital wing.

"Wait!" Kade exclaimed. "Is Mommy?"

Mace took the children's hands and escorted them to one of the private areas of the hospital wing where Brenda was laying in a bed looking very tired, but extremely happy as she held a little bundle in her arms.

Mace smiled and said,

"Myra, Kade, meet your new baby sister."

Myra and Kade were both speechless when they caught sight of the beautiful baby girl. The baby was so adorable. She looked just like Myra when she was a baby, but with Brenda's eyes.

"Clara Windu," Brenda introduced.

Mace picked Kade up so he could get a better look at his new little sister.

Kade looked down curiously at the new baby. She was so tiny. And when the baby looked at him, he couldn't help but smile. He wondered if this was how Myra felt when she first met him as a newborn.

But perhaps the most emotional one was Mace. He'd missed out on this experience with Myra. He wasn't there to hold Brenda's hand while she gave birth or to help her take care of the baby back then; he hadn't even known he was going to be a father. But he was blessed with a second chance with both of his daughters. And he was able to do for Clara what he couldn't for Myra, and he would continue to do that starting with watching her grow.

Mace took Clara into his arms so Brenda could rest. He couldn't believe how magical it felt to hold his baby in his arms for the very first time.

"Hi, Clara. Nice to meet you now that you're awake." Mace cooed. "You probably won't understand this, but I… I will always be here for you. Daddy's going to love you and take care of you. Always."

Everyone at the Naboo Palace was excited to open their presents too. It appeared Holly enjoyed the snickerdoodles too, because they were all gone.

Mona was super excited when she opened her gift. She asked Santa this year for skates. Specifically this really cool pair of skates that could switch from ice skates to roller skates.

Santa got all the kids great gifts this year, but their grandparents were some stiff competition.

Ashina wanted her first gifts for her granddaughters to be absolutely perfect, and when Goldie and Mona opened their gifts, they were surprised by some beautiful wood carved dolls that looked like little wolves. But that wasn't all that was in the box. There were paints too.

"You can paint those dolls any color you want." Ashina said. "These dolls are a popular activity among the pups in our pack."

"Thanks, Grandma Ashina." Goldie said.

"Yeah, thanks. They're so cute." Mona said, looking at hers, trying to imagine how she might paint it.

"Look at my new hula hoop!" Gabby said, happily spinning a hoop with lots of colorful lights bouncing off it.

Everyone's gifts looked amazing, but the most important gift of all was the fact that they were all gathered here together to enjoy the holiday.

Hunter and Indira kissed under the mistletoe, this being perhaps the best Life Day ever.

"Merry Life Day, Indira." Hunter smiled at his wife.

"Merry Life Day, Hunter." Indira smiled, leaning in and kissing her husband once more.

The Windus eventually did make it to the Halls' family gathering. Vince's relatives were all very happy to meet the girl who'd won Vince's heart, especially Vince's grandparents when they had enough proof she wasn't a gold digger like Tatiana.

Myra's parents both had successful careers and Myra had already rejected Vince plenty of times in the past despite knowing he was rich. Plus, she was beautiful, hardworking, and a great musician who worked her way to getting a chance with the record company.

Everyone also gave a lot of congratulations to Brenda on a safe and healthy birth of Baby Clara.

Vince was also glad to finally exchange gifts with Myra.

Myra insisted Vince open his first. So he did. And inside he found a gorgeous pair of blue and white athletic shoes worn by many successful professional athletes.

"The shoes I wanted," gasped Vince. "How did you know?"

"You couldn't take your eyes off them when we were at the mall a few weeks back. Let's just say it's thanks to shopping for them that I understand why you didn't like playing football. I had to wear a display helmet just to stay alive in that crowd."

Myra and Vince both laughed at that story she shared.

And then, Vince brought out the box for Myra.

Inside the box, Myra found a few objects. A cage, bedding, a food bowl and water bottle, and apple wood sticks.

"Wait, these look like… pet care supplies." Myra said. Then she looked at the bottom of the box and found a picture of two baby guinea pigs. "Aww. How cute."

That was when Myra froze.

"Oh my gosh, Vinnie, you didn't." Myra said.

"I just called in a favor at the shelter. They don't have names yet. Don't worry, I asked your mom and dad, and they said it was okay. They're yours if you want them."

Myra hugged Vince and gave him a big kiss which had Jacob silently gagging.

"I'll take that as a yes." Vince said. "Which I figured you might."

Vince took out another box, this time one that had little holes in it, and inside were the two guinea pigs. Myra decided she was going to name them Chestnut and Nutmeg. Myra loved chestnuts and Vince loved nutmeg. It just made sense. In short, the Windu family gained three new family members this Life Day.

Holiday wishes came true all across the galaxy.

Benni got to celebrate Life Day with his mom, Baby Clara was healthy and welcomed into the family with open arms, Vince finally got to start building a healthy relationship with Jacob, and Anakin and Padme were very excited to see that Luke and Leia were starting to walk very well.

And on Mandalore, Obi-Wan and Satine were ecstatic to see Olivia crawling so well.

Turha, on the other hand, was surprised when he opened his gift from Jacob to find it was a bunch of coloring books and some crayons. He started to think maybe Jacob really was trying to change, and he loved his new art supplies.

Firework was also happy that this year, she finally overcame her fear of Krampus, and you can bet Holly did have that serious talk with Firework's parents about using her uncle to scare their kids into behaving and how it did more harm than good on excitable youths like Firework.

And when Holly got home, she was greeted with a big hug from her sisters. Santa got a big kiss from his wife.

"I see Mommy kissing Santa Claus," sang Faith.

"Someone else is excited to see you, Holly." Noel said, holding a certain baby who was giggling.

Holly happily took Kris into her arms and gave him a big kiss.

"Hi, Kris. Did you miss me?" Holly cooed. "I missed you too. Merry Christmas."

Once again, it was proven at the holidays that there is no greater gift than family, and all these families would remember this for years to come.

By now, you're probably wondering, what happened to the rest of the Dastardly Dozen? Well, Gryla and Krampus took care of them.

Hondo and his crew were all trapped in Krampus' magical snow globe, where they would be staying for a while.

All the Enchanted members were taken to the EHC for a hearing regarding their behavior. And you can bet the kings and queens of Equinaro, Plumalas, and Lefintiscia were far from happy learning how they'd almost ruined the holidays for everyone. It was highly likely they were going to do some juvenile detention at the very least, which was being kind considering they were accomplices to kidnapping Santa Claus's children and invading the North Pole at their most important time of the year. But for the other kids, they pretty much had to leave out that it was Santa's kids who were kidnapped because most parents, sadly, had stopped believing by then.

You can bet the kids were all more than just grounded for their doings.

Morris got in big trouble with his parents when he was taken home and reported for hacking and aiding in a kidnapping, and he got all of his computer equipment and devices taken away.

Mandi's mom revoked her credit card and forced her to start looking for a job.

Geneva's parents took away the Starway show tickets they were going to give her for Life Day and instead gave them to Comedia (they figured that was the least they could do after their daughter got her wrongfully expelled and arrested).

Nia was forbidden from going into her school's drama club next year and her parents cancelled her upcoming audition for a professional theater program.

Shavra was placed on manure duty on her family's farm until she learned to stop being so reckless, and Numo was punished by his parents by having his allowance revoked until he learned to be more responsible, and he would be doing all of his sister's chores for the next four months.

And Brittney? She got the biggest punishment of all. Not only did her time in Gryla's sack and then Krampus' rath leave her hair extremely unruly, her mani-pedi ruined, and placed into rags to wear, but Krampus also clawed all of Brittney's designer bags, clothes, and shoes, leaving her nothing but last season's clothing to wear. But they didn't stop there either. Unlike the other parents, Brittney's were shown Krampus' magic snow globe to show them exactly what Brittney had been up to, and you can bet Brittney's parents were not happy about this.

Mr. and Mrs. Parisia could see confiscating Brittney's phone and grounding her just weren't enough. So, they did the one thing they hoped they'd never have to do.

"This is the final straw, Brittney!" Mr. Parisia yelled. "You are going back to Serenno!"

"Finally." Brittney said. "We're moving away from this dump."

"No, you misunderstand, Brittney," said Mrs. Parisia. "We're not sending you to the vacation house. You, Missy… are going to Countess Sonya's."

Who is Countess Sonya, you ask? Not who, where. Countess Sonya's School For Undisciplined Girls was an all girl boarding school, a very strict one too for girls ages 11 to 18. There were no cell phones, no shopping malls for miles, strict curfews, a strict dress code, bars on the windows, giant electric fences all around the yard… basically, it looked more like a prison than a school. And, its high-tech security innovations were actually designed and built by Mr. Parisia's company, so that was how Brittney's parents knew she wouldn't be able to escape.

"The boarding school threat, again?" Brittney rolled her eyes.

"It's not just a threat, Brittney," said Mr. Parisia. "We're packing your bags now. You leave one week from the day after Life Day."

And when Brittney saw her parents packing her suitcases, she started panicking, and when she saw her new school uniform…

"NOOOO!"

In other words, it was not a very merry Life Day for the Dastardly Dozen. Until they learned their lesson like Jacob miraculously had, they were going to have to face the consequences.

And that wraps up the EJA holiday special. I hope you enjoyed this story and thank you all for joining me on this extended holiday writing journey. To all those affected by the California fires, my prayers go out to you.

I hope all of you stay safe, and feel free to leave a review.

God bless you.