Jo-Jo and Baff had a problem or two that they had to solve before they could play baseball.  They had enough people to play, but who was going to be the umpire?

Tom, the blacksmith, who looks after the reindeer, was busy and so was I.  Then the elves thought that Mrs. Claus could be the umpire since she is so nice and sweet and wonderful.  But after a vote, Santa was elected.  You see, everyone figured that anyone who could check off the millions of names on the Christmas lists to see who was naughty or nice, could easily call balls and strikes.

Before you knew it, everyone pitched in and worked out a diamond shape in the snow, laid down bases and were ready to “Play Ball”.

It was Jo-Jo and half of the elves calling themselves the “North Pole Pilots” against his cousin, Baff, the beaver, and the remainder of the elves calling themselves the “Arctic Igloos”.

For the next couple of hours, everyone enjoyed themselves.  Jo-Jo especially tried hard to bring his team back from behind, by swinging his bat furiously.  Soon the game was over and everyone promised to play again as soon as free time allowed.

As everyone went to clean up, no one knew where to store the bases, bats, gloves and balls.  That is when Jo-Jo got an idea.  Using his talent to dig, he made a small hole in the ground under the snow.  Baff, the beaver, using his sharp front teeth then carved an igloo tool shed out of a giant boulder of ice.  Everyone then pushed the igloo over Jo-Jo’s pit and the elves put the finishing touches on by building a door from scraps of wood.  It looked great and safe.  And keeping it safe was left up to me to create a lock and key for the equipment shed.  Finally, everything was done and the equipment was put away, we all got to relax.

You know, Jo-Jo said later, after all the work was done, that he had more fun building the igloo than even playing baseball.  But I think that had something to do with the fact his team had lost 7 to 0.