Even Santa’s vacations don’t always get off to a smooth start.

First there was the bumpy, early morning sleigh ride. Then came the inexplicably delayed connecting sleigh in Phoenix. And the awful sleigh-line food — they call that cookies and milk?

But, as Santa lounged in his beach chair and sipped his candy cane martini, none of it mattered much. That is, until he remembered: He still needed to approve the elves’ Christmas bonuses, and the files were on his laptop back at the workshop!

“Kris,” Mrs. Claus said from the adjoining chair, “don’t worry about it. That’s why you have GoToMyPC.”

Of course, Santa thought as he reached for his smartphone. GoToMyPC’s highly encrypted data-security measures let Santa and his IT elves get rid of their cumbersome VPN, but installation was so easy he almost forgot about it as he relaxed in the warm Caribbean sun.

Using GoToMyPC beach side is a snap: Santa downloaded both the iPhone app his phone and the Android app to his tablet. Then he pulled up the necessary document and emailed it to his Chief Financial Elf in seconds. Management crisis averted.

With that, Santa put his smartphone away, browsed the appetizer menu — free-range cookies and milk, perhaps? — and leaned back in his beach chair.

Then, as Mr. and Mrs. Claus prepared to watch the sunset, something else occurred to him: His new sunglasses were also at the workshop.

Read more about Santa’s story on the GoToMeeting and the GoToAssist blogs.