Dear Diary - Well, I guess it's all over now. I heard the building explode and the cable snap. I can feel us falling. I don't know how much longer that I've got, but I want it to be recorded, for anybody that might find it, that am so proud of my reindeer family. They have repeatedly risked themselves to do the right thing, even when it was not the safest thing for them. As I sit here, the Missus snuggled up next to me, that much is abundantly clear. Prancer is in my lap, clearly in pain with both his back legs busted and who knows what else. He's still in good cheer and has told me that even if he had it to do again, he wouldn't change a thing. Dancer is laying in the Missus lap. He's asleep now and his breathing is getting raspy and I suspect that he hasn't got much longer. Doesn't matter. In a few seconds, the fall will get us anyway. I raise my hand, which holds Candy's, up between us and look at it, and then to her. "They did pretty good, our kids, didn't they. They almost pulled off the Christmas miracle, huh?." She smiled at me. The smile that never fails to warm my heart. "They did at that," she says to me, her smile never fading even as a tear forms in the corner of her eye. I don't know how much time I have left - how long does it take to all 1000 feet? "Candy - I love you." I say to her. "Claus," She says to me, a twinkle in her teary eye, "I know that." For a few more heartbeats, we looked at each other in silence. And then it was over.....

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