“Did somebody say danger?” Jo-Jo, the snow gopher dressed in yellow rain slicker, galoshes and yellow rain hat suddenly appeared nearby as he always seemed to do. Jo-Jo was always so inquisitive and seemed to pop up when anything interesting was happening. That is when he wasn’t sneaking cookies from Mrs. Claus’s kitchen. “Danger is my middle name.”

“Really?” Another voice spoke up from behind the group. It was Jo-Jo’s cousin Baff the beaver. I thought your middle name was Martin.”

“Spoilsport,” grumbled the snow gopher over his shoulder to his cousin.

“Hold on a minute,” stated Mr. Jingeling as he waved his arms back and forth. “We have an emergency here fellas.” The Keeper of the Keys quickly related the story to everyone within earshot and when he was finished, everyone offered to help.

“I’ll take all the help we can gather.” Commander Snowglobe gave a great big smile as he patted everyone there on the back in appreciation.

Tom, the handyman who took care of the stables and all of the flying reindeer overheard the conversation as he entered the room.

“I’ll bet Mr. Jingeling can handle that locked door,” spoke the handyman. “He’d find out about the voices from behind the stuck entrance.” He placed his hands on his hips and added, “I’ll volunteer to help. Besides, I’m pretty tall and can handle all of the ropes and such.”

“Then everyone follow me,” Commander Snowglobe waved his arm over his shoulder as he walked back through the door out into the

blustery wind.

As Jingeling and his friends fell in line and left the warmth of Santa’s workshop, they all saw the outline of a great ship in the distance, complete with masts and sails and a great big glass ball surrounding everything. In effect, the whole thing looked like a giant ship in a giant snowglobe!

Within minutes, the new crew walked through a special removable hole in the glass and found themselves on board the ship. The Commander then re-sealed the glass entrance and gave the order to his son Shaker to bring the sails around, catch the wind and begin the journey.

Meanwhile, Mr. Jingeling, Tom, Jo-Jo and Baff waved goodbye to Santa and all of the elves on shore. Then almost as one person they turned towards the front of the ship and looked ahead to finding the magic door at the North Pole.