It’s my most favourite time of year! Well truth be told every part of the year is my most favouritest time but there’s something extra special and cool about this time. I mean there’s all sorts of big wondrous sticks and smelly things that come out and all the glistening lights and shiny balls – which I’m technically not supposed to go near but if one drops to the floor then it’s mine right? – and it’s just all so pretty.

Though I still don’t particularly like the strange unmoving men who appear on the grass and stuff, they’re just a bit on the creepy side. Plus, I don’t trust them because they let the big sparkly monsters into the house which stole Panba away I’m sure of it.

Jintao says that I’m being silly when I say that but I’m watching those things.

They’re shifty.

Plus, Jintao doesn’t really know much about them so I’ll let him off. Flower finds it hysterical that I bark at the strange white men who turn up in everyone’s gardens and he teases me about it whenever they come up.

But Flower is a bit strange like that anyway. Still don’t trust those things.

Thankfully there’s none of the around, cause I knocked the one over that was in the garden earlier just to be on the safe side which had Chewchew yelling at me for all of a second before Panba found it hilarious and started throwing snow at me! It was so much fun to eat. I like snow, it’s yummy.

Right now, though we’re all warmly tucked up in the old apartment because apparently, my Daddies liked the familiarity and want to be all together and since the Agency they work for still had it and weren’t using it for anything else it made perfect sense. So, all my Daddies along with their puppies and the doggies are here in this huge multistory place. It’s great fun though a little on the confusing side sometimes as there’s so many more sounds than there was the last time we were properly here.

Though Rourou avoids Fish’s bedroom like the plague and Candy says it’s cause he took a dive into the big water bowl.

Silly doggie.

Anyway, everyone is all back in one place and it’s great!

Though right now it’s a little on the quiet side because everyone is asleep. Or well supposed to be asleep because tonight is the night when the big man in the suit visits with the bag full of treats and brightly coloured paper.

I’m only up to do my rounds because I wouldn’t be a good guard dog if I didn’t do that, now would I?

Daddy Sehun and Fluffles are snuggled up in their bed together, smushed together happily and I don’t have to worry too much about them because I was sleeping at the bottom of the bed. The next room along houses Smoke and his partner whom I haven’t quite given a name too yet cause I’ve only met him like twice. Though he may end up being Biscuit cause he always has some in his pocket for me. We shall see, he makes Smoke so happy though and that is fine with me.

When I stick my head around the door – all my Daddies learnt to stop closing doors because I just nut them open to make sure they’re okay, even when they’re doing their business in the strange bowl thing that humans do it in – Smoke and Biscuit are also snuggled together which is nice to see.

I don’t go further in though cause there’s plenty more to see and check on. Flower and Baekhyun aren’t in their bed when I get to their room, since all of their puppies are snuggled up onto it instead and they’ve curled up on an old sofa. Well correction Flower has snuggled onto the couch, Baekhyun is on top of him and looking like he’s about to fall off and onto the floor.

Not going to happen on my watch!

I’ll just nudge his arm a little and then he’ll move…gah! No! Baekhyun! You’re not supposed to roll onto the floor! Now you’ll be all hurt and it’ll be….

Baekhyun? -nudge with nose-

Oh? You wanna sleep there? Okay! You can sleep there but you’re going to be sore in the morning!

Now I’m going to check on others since Baekhyun is okay.

Pink, Rainbow and Bun are in the middle of their massive bed and I have to jump up onto it in order to check that they’re perfectly fine. There’s a slight disgruntled groan from one of them cause I’ve just stood on their foot but other than that they don’t move. They’re all squished up and look comfy but they smell just a little bit. In a way that makes me want to clean them up because I’m sure they’re dirty but I can’t go waking them up right now because it wouldn’t be fair in the slightest. Plus I think I would get some rude words sent my way and that wouldn’t be very fun at all.

So now I know they’re all okay I jump down off the bed and head off to the next room.

Thankfully Fish isn’t being a monster Fish tonight and is curled up protectively around Cookie and Squish, their puppy and they are all happy together. Fish’s tentacles are roaming a little but tonight they just bop me on the nose and then rest down. Fish will just be checked who is wandering into his room cause he’s a bit silly like that when he’s asleep. He should totally know me by now but I guess when he’s asleep he really doesn’t think.

Just reacts on instinct or something.

Not that I mind of course. I just have to remember not to bit the tentacles cause it’ll hurt Fish. Though they’re fun to play with now that I know they’re part of him. When I was a puppy I was terrified of them but now they’re just fun little chew toys.

That must only be chewed and not bitten.

My final port of call for tonight is Puff, Panba and Chewchew and I’m not surprised to find that Puff and Chewchew are all tangled up together with little bits of fluff sticking to them. I heard them playfully bashing each other with the pillows earlier as they were trying to be so quiet and totally failed but they’re allowed.

They were apart for so long when the evil sparkly things came and took Puff away.

I know cause I went and saved him and Panba!

Cause I’m a good doggie like that.

They’re so happy now thanks to me and that’s a good thing.

Right now though they just look like they’re exhausted puppies who have tired themselves out from playing too much and there’s no way that they’re going to move in the slightest for a long while. A good thing too if you ask me.

And as for Panba…wait, where is she? Panba? You’re supposed to be in your little dog basket with the white sides. Where are you? I shall sniff you out cause you can’t get far since you only just learnt to walk but still…

Why’s your box of clothes open too? Hey, your blue fluffy outer fur is missing!

Panba!

Panba! Panba…Pan…oh wait! There you are. What are you doing near the back door?

Panba turns and looks at me with her big brown eyes and pats my nose, “Hero. Help.”

Oh yeah, forgot to Mention that Panba is special cause she can understand me and has this really cool thing where she can know when things are going wrong and can sort of fix them.

Like the time when Squish – her half-sister – was about to fall out of her high chair cause she would not stop squirming around in the slightest and she told me to go and stand next to her so that she fell onto me instead of the floor.

I think Panba is going to be really special when she grows up, but she’s still only a tiny little puppy and tiny little puppies shouldn’t’ go wandering out into the back yard when it’s snowing heavily even if they are wearing their really warm extra fluffy fur layer.

She smiles brightly, latches onto my collar and side steps around to be level with my shoulders. I blink and then lie down so she can clamber onto my back and once she’s safely on, I stand up and glance towards the back door. Why she wants to go out there I don’t know and I plan to just take her back to Chewchew and Puff but she tugs on my ear lightly.

“Out! We help,”

Okay, I’ll play along my little puppy but I dunno how we’re going to get out of the…

Panba claps and giggles, setting forth some of her little gold spirals that shoot straight towards the door which remains the same as it always has before clicking open. Yeah, like I said, Panba is one very special puppy and I’m so glad she’s mine.

We step, well correction I step out into the back garden which is all covered with snow and pretty little lanterns that burn away peacefully. Though normally the place is a bit unkept because none of my Daddy’s are really any good at gardening. Flower isn’t called Flower because he likes to play with flowers, he’s called that because one of the first times I met him he had flowers in his hair and gave me one to eat. Plus, normally it has all sorts of toys strewn about from myself and the other puppies, but the big bouncy thing has been replaced by a bigger thing tonight.

It’s a huge big…snow sledge…with bright colours and these strange horses like creatures all milling about. There’s a big man standing by the side of the snow sledge, dressed in red with a big white beard and a hat with a chewy ball on the end and he’s looking just a little bit worried.

Normally I would be wary of strangers because they’re not supposed to turn up in our back garden like this but there’s something so familiar about the man that I’m sure we’ve met before even though I don’t think we actually have.

Panba laughs and pets my head, which makes the man turn to us, “Oh! Hello there, what are you doing out of bed young lady?”

That’s what I wanted to ask too but she insisted, mister big red man.

“Hero, Panba, help,” Panba says in response, smiling brightly, “Santa need help. We help.”

Oh, he’s Santa! That makes sense.

Santa raises an eyebrow and goes to reply but is stopped when one of the gold spirals that Panba has dances about in front of his face and then swoops gracefully onto the big snow sledge to wrap around a broken section I had not noticed before. Panba claps happily once it’s done and the gold spiral returns to her hands.

Santa smiled warmly and chuckles, before extending his hand towards the pair of us, “Looks like you were indeed right with your words little lady. Though I don’t think I have a Panba on my list at all.”

You should Santa! Panba is the nicest girl on the planet!

Santa chuckles, “Oh I’ve no doubt of that. Well how about this, I’ll check my list through whilst you two get on my sleigh and I’ll take you on a little tour around Seoul before I head off to my next destination because I get the feeling I may need some extra help along the way and I’ve lost my elves.”

Cooor! I get to play Santa’s little helper! Yippee! Come on Panba! Let’s go and ride the sleigh.

Though it’s a bit scary with all this wind and we’re so high up in the air. Everything is bright and twinkling and looks so pretty. Panba is laughing the whole time we’re up in the sky though she remembers to cling onto my collar at all times so she doesn’t go falling off. I wouldn’t’ like to think what would happen if she were to fall. That would be very bad.

But we’re swopping over and around everything and no one notices us in the slightest. Well some of my doggie friends do and they send out a call of greeting which I return before we’re off again. We go to so many houses to drop presents off and it’s such great fun.

There’s big presents, little presents, oddly shaped presents, ones that make a noise and others that I’m sure are moving of their own accord but we set them all down. Santa finds a basket for me so that I can carry more than just one thing and Panba mainly stays on my back. Except when she’s dutifully collecting the cookies and treats for Santa which are all going to go to a local food bank before he moves off.

We go all over the place and it’s so much fun that I barely feel tired. Panba has to help fix Santa’s sleigh only once because he misjudged a landing and had to knock into a smoke blower but it’s all sorted. Oh, and she helped one of the reindeer, who are not horses as I’ve been corrected officially now seeing as the lead one wasn’t apparently impressed at being called a horse but I didn’t know what he was.

I’ll have to learn for next year.

Finally, after a long time we come back home and Santa manages to land without a hitch. He smiles towards the pair of us and hands me the basket, “Here Hero, you keep this. I’m sure you’re going to need it in the future.”

Ohhhh, really? I can have? Wow thank you Santa!

“Though we really should make one last delivery before we go shouldn’t we” Santa smiles and Panba gets all excited but she’s getting really sleepy now and looks close to passing out. In fact, as Santa is busy loading up my basket with lots of presents for the final delivery, Panba actually lays her head down on my back and goes to sleep, murmuring happily every so often.

We head into the large apartment and put all of my Daddies and puppies presents around the Christmas Tree and it just looks so pretty and enchanting that I can’t wait to see how everyone reacts to opening everything tomorrow because I bet it’s going to be wonderful and so much fun indeed. Santa reaches across to pet my head and smile brightly at me, “You’re a good boy Hero, here you have done so much to help tonight I think you deserve a present just a little bit early.”

Oh? Hero gets’ an early Christmas present? Oh, thank you Santa! I shall love you forever and ever. What is it?

Yay! It’s a big chewable bone! All for Hero! Thank you! I shall nom it and nom it until it’s all gone!

Santa nods his approval and glances towards the sleeping figure on my back, “You best get your little one to bed and make sure that everyone has a good time tomorrow Hero.”

I will Santa! Thank you for tonight! It was awesome and I’ll never forget it in the slightest.

Another nod and with a wink and a touch to his nose, Santa is gone and everything falls back into the normal feeling. The door to the garden is locked, there’s no sign of the snow sledge or the rain-horses and if I hadn’t have just gone through it all with Panba then I wouldn’t have believed it would have happened in the slightest.

Panba is out of her fluffy fur and in her nightie with her hair in little bunches and she lightly on her thumb as she dreams away happily. Carefully I head back to her room where her Daddies are still asleep and very carefully place her down into her dog bed with the white walls before grabbing the blanket and covering her as best as I can. She doesn’t move or wake up so I’m happy and I head out of the door with plans to go and chew that nommable bone because Hero has done a lot of work tonight and he needs a good feed before he goes to sleep.

Though this bit of floor looks really comfy and I shall just lay down for a second and stretch out…

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Oh, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

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authors babbling: just a little extra chapter for you all. Hope you enjoy