The wind was howling,

the snow was blowing, it was 30 degrees below zero.  Still Brunie was glad to be home.

She was tanned, relaxed, and maybe a few pounds heavier.  She spent the day handing out presents she'd brought for everybody.  There were pineapples, macadamia nuts, flower leis, bright muu-muus, and shirts for all the elves and a special one for Santa that had bright red and yellow hibiscus blooms on it.

Santa gave her the day off to help get rid of 'jet lag', and told Brunie he would assign her to a new department in the morning. 

By morning the blizzard had passed. The North Pole was awash in bright sunshine and Brunie thought perhaps the better gift for the elves would have been designer sunglasses.  She dressed in a hurry eager to get to work.  She was glad she gave herself a little extra time, because she found her bright red elf dress was a smidgen too tight and had to make a hurried trip to the Elf Outlet store to buy a new one.

Santa met her as she headed back to the elf dormitory.  He informed her she had been assigned to the Candy Shop and would start by learning to make Candy Canes.  The head confectioner gave her a smock, and lead her to a room full of kettles, all steamy hot and explained her job would be to use the candy thermometer to make sure the sugary syrup always remained at a constant 280 degrees, no more, no less.

Eager, Brunie, set to work.  She soon discovered this was not going to be an easy job and after a while she paid a visit to the Toy Department where she bought herself a skateboard so she could move along the kettle assembly line more quickly.  Now, don't get me wrong, Brunie liked this job, what she didn't like was the blisters she got from time to time she when she inserted the thermometer into the bubbling sugar mixture. 

Several years passed.  One day Santa happened to be making an inspection, and found Brunie nursing a particularly bad burn, and decided it was time to move her up to a more prestigious job.

Salting Nuts.  This job was much better.  She no longer needed her skateboard, because she got to sit in a chair.  All she had to do was make sure each walnut, cashew, chestnut, hazelnut, almond, pecan and peanut got the "just right" amount of salt.  Oh my, Brunie really, really liked this job.  But, after several years her eye sight was not as good as it used to be, and a visit to vision expert Vince became necessary.  Glasses helped for several more years, but after a while, Santa discovered some of her batches were too salty, some not salty enough.  It was time for Brunie to get a new job.

Oh, she stayed in the Candy Shop, and her next job was, was, WAS her best job yet.
It was covering, smothering, cherries in the most delicious, 'imported from Switzerland' chocolate.  Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm!   The scent of sweet, dark chocolate wafted through the room, sticky, sugar covered maraschino cherries, slowly inched across the assembly line and her wonderful job was to give each, 'one squirt, two squirts' of chocolate, then send the tiny morsel out of site.

Brunie knew in her heart of hearts she could be happy here in the Candy Shop till it was time for her to retire.  So, and considering her age, she went to the Elf First North Pole Bank and opened a retirement account.  Yes, she could and would cover those cherries, for all her years to come.

Except, that one day she broke the rules.  Rule #1 "Elves will not partake of any sweet whether in perfect condition, or a slight irregular.

Uh oh!  (Did I forget to mention chocolate covered cherries are Brunie's favorite?)

Well, one day Brunie got distracted and accidentally gave a cherry not just one, not just two, but three squirts of that most delicious, "imported from Switzerland
chocolate".   Before she knew it, she had scooped it off the assembly line, and shoved the whole dang thing into her mouth. 

Oh, me, oh, my!!!!

Brunie was hooked.  As time went by it was obvious to all the other Candy Shop elves Brunie had put on a few pounds...er, actually.....several...many, many pounds.  Truth be told, Brunie had kind of blown up like a blimp.  The line to Santa's Licorice colored Telephone lines were a-buzz with gossip.  Brunie had run amok.  Before long Santa got wind of the rumors and decided he had to take a look around the Candy Shop.

There he found Brunie, her smock covered in "imported from Switzerland
chocolate", sitting cross-legged, in a corner, surrounded by rejected chocolate covered cherries. 

An intervention was held, and dear Brunie was shipped off on another vacation, to The Elf Health and Wellness Hospital for a nice long stay.

Chapter three to follow.