Looking Festive

Christmas has come and gone with its usual swiftness! Here are our cousins and the four of us in our holiday finest. I think we were all envious of Amber and Autumn's boas, ha ha, but it actually wasn't that cold. We had one of our warmest Christmases ever: it made it into the mid 50's!

And here is our lovely tree as it appeared on that mild, green Christmas morning. So many presents! 

Here is this year's prettiest present award winner:

This present also deserves to be memorialized. It had arms!

This incredibly soft cheetah was inside. He/she (name still undetermined) was a total surprise. =) 

For the curious, here is Mom's generous haul of gifts!

Lily reports that the new pj's are as comfy as they look.

We were very excited for the other new stuffies as well. Here is Wendy meeting her mini me. We are thinking we'll call her Wanda.

Mom's been thinking about buying herself a second elephant Floppalot for quite some time. Never as a replacement for her beloved Norbert, but as a fun, look-alike friend for the little guy. A few months ago, she saved this one to the eBay watch list, and apparently Grandma took notice. 

The new elephant, Nora, is a lot less floppy than Norbert, has a different hairdo, and is and more saturated in color, as you can see. <3 

Mom has also given Nora a bow (one she wore in her own hair as a kid) to further differentiate.

On to our Star Stable news! Old, clunky Brinicle edged out frosty-whiskered Katur to become our seventh herd member on Dec. 23. (Funny how it was abruptly summertime during the girl-meets-horse sequence. Star Stable should really fix that...)

Brinicle has been around since late 2018, which makes him about the same vintage as Frosty. As such, he won't be able to wear many of the new tack items. Like Magic, he'll also never be wearing boots or polos due to his feathering. But, we have plenty of tack he can wear, so he'll be just fine.

He's unicorn-esque, color changing, and wintery all in one! We think he's pretty great! We named him Arcticair, or Artie for short. If you think it sounds like a fridge or air conditioner brand, you'd be right, but that's also... amusingly appropriate.

He has been zooming through the experience levels thanks to the Winter Village activities. Here he is on the way to his first snowstorm vortex.

It's a refreshing change of pace for there to be bears and wolves that want to cuddle rather than attack. <3

Here is Artie showing off his non-magical coat on Christmas Day.

We did more animal meeting and cuddling...

...and ended the big day by sending up red and green lanterns. 

Best holiday wishes, everybody! Until next year!