Christmas time's a'comin!!!

TOMH&R have been very busy for the past week or so writing up their Christmas wish lists so they'd be all ready when it came time to go see Santa at the mall.  Finally after reviewing them a few times, checking to make sure everyone was set to go, they all trekked off to see Santa.

They lined up and waited their turn with so much excitement and nervousness.  It's not every day you get to see someone like Santa!

One by one they got on Santa's lap and whispered in his ear what they wished for Christmas.  The only ones that didn't whisper were Lola (she wants sparkly bling of course) and Ed & Ted (they want leather suits for Fight Club).  They got individual pictures of each of them sitting on Santa's lap with a big smile (remember - they think the more teeth you show, the better the smile, always ends up looking more like a toothy grimace than a smile).  Then they all piled up on Santa for a group photo before leaving.

The chatter all the way home was about Christmas excitement and how great it was to see Santa, everyone very much hoping they get what they asked for.  Along the way they decided it was time to get a Christmas tree.  Obviously they couldn't get a whole tree, they're much to small for that, so they settled on a large branch.  After a lot of heave-hoing they hoisted it onto Raoul's skateboard and pushed it home.  They found a nice place to put it and strung up some cranberries and popcorn to decorate it.  They kept having to string up more, a lot more than it should have taken for one little branch .... someone kept eating it, we don't know exactly who it was.  They tried putting icicles on but they kept melting so that idea had to be scrapped.  They strung up lots of lights and were a bit disappointed that they weren't the blinking kind, so instead they all sat there and blinked their eyes to simulate the effect. When they were all finished I made them some pasketti for dinner.  Everyone ate and burped and went to sleep, dreaming about Christmas.

It's music time!

The hedgehogs and friends LOVE music!  Usually they just sit and bob their heads in time to the tunes, they call it the "hedgehog bob".  Now they've decided to put their talents together and form a band.  

Emilio was tickling the ivories on piano, Freddy was plucking on a cello and spinning it around between sets.  Pierre was on guitar and UpYours played trumpet.  Guerrero was smooth on the sax.  Being a hillbilly, Jed doesn't play a fancy city-folk instrument, but he does play the jugs so he was blowing on his jug in time with the music.  Lola had the tambourine and did some singing ... she was very sparkly and glittery.  Gustave  sat on the piano and hummed along.  He started out sitting on the piano strings but got bounced around too much.  He tried going rock but that made it worse so Emilio moved him to sit next to the keys so he wouldn't get bobbled all over the place.

Of course Ed and Ted played the drums.  They drummed with their drumsticks and also just bounced around on the drums themselves.  TOMH&R's favorite song is the theme to "Hawaii 5-0" ... Ed and Ted go crazy at the middle part when the music changes.  

Everyone in the band wore cool sunglasses, supplied by Jorgé.  The whole gang danced and had a great time.  

The only one that didn't join in was Ned.  He decided to take this time alone to work on a time machine.  Ed & Ted had tried to make a wormhole one time but that didn't work out so well, plus they couldn't find any worms.  Ned got books from the library to work on it and was trying to get some extra work done without anyone bothering him.  He's not done yet, still got a long ways to go.  He uses Pierre's friends from the lab as guinea pigs, since they actually ARE guinea pigs.

Ed & Ted haven't given up on joining Fight Club.  They keep badgering Guerrero to teach them some fancy ninja moves but he still says they're not ready.  They even chose code-names for themselves ... they want people to call them "Mayhem" and "Havoc".  Nobody does though, they still just call them Ed & Ted.  The other day Guerrero was sleeping in the sun (he is a cat, after all) and they were trying to get his attention.  They stood in his sunshine and made shadows on him, then lifted up one eyelid to see if he was awake or not.  He just ignored them and went back to sleep.

It's fall!

Everyone in TOMH&R loves every season, each for its own reasons and all the fun things they can find to do all year round.  They especially love the autumn when the leaves are falling.  Lola thinks it's very pretty, all the lovely leaves and colors.  She also loves to play in the leaves, just like all the others. (we seem to be rhyming a bit today)

On such a bright sunny day they decided to go out for a walk through the neighborhood to check out all the leaves.  Pierre had come to visit from the lab so he was really looking forward to it.  The leaves were EVERYWHERE!  Nobody had ever seen so MANY leaves at one time!  People had raked their yards into huge piles of leaves.  At first everyone just walked around on the sidewalks oohing and aahing at all the bright colors.  Then they couldn't resist it any longer.  Ted and Ed took off like 2 spinning tornadoes and headed for the biggest leaf pile they saw.  WHOOOSH!  There were leaves flying around in all directions ... falling down on the gang like rain!  Al watched from a tree, enjoying the swirl of colors from above.

All the hedgehogs, Raoul, Freddy, Guerrero, and UpYours were having a great time rolling around and throwing leaves all around.  Suddenly Emilio shouted "Everybody stop!  Where's Gustave?"  They all stopped throwing the leaves and stood very still as things settled down.  They looked all around but didn't see him anywhere.  Then Alphonso spotted a leaf moving along very slowly.  He lifted it up and there was Gustave underneath it.  They put Gustave into Ned's backpack so he wouldn't get lost again, then they carried on with the playing.  Gustave appreciated that a lot.

When they were all tired out from playing in the leaves and had made a huge mess of every yard in the neighborhood, they all headed back home.  They were very hungry!  Luckily the night before they had made a bunch of pb & j sandwiches in preparation for the next day.  They had made a HUGE mess of it but managed to get a lot of sandwiches made so everyone would have some.  Of course there was one without jelly for Alphonso, and Gustave still had plenty of licorice leftover from Halloween.  They all feasted on the sandwiches with milk to wash it down, then after Lola was done burping they laid down and took a nap, all tuckered out and full.

Happy, hungry halloween hedgehogs!

The hedgehogs and friends were very excited about halloween.  They love candy!  But first they had to brainstorm about what to dress up as.  First they all wanted to be ghosts, but it was unanimously decided that it wasn't a great idea.  For one thing, those with spiny spines would poke holes right through the sheets, plus it's not very original.  And since they left it to the last minute they didn't have time to go shopping for costumes.

Finally Gustave said he was going as a rock.  He just needed someone to  carry him around, so they all took turns, no biggie.  Guerrero took off his ninja gear and went as Garfield.  Freddy went as a gecko and UpYours was a ninja turtle (he wore Guerrero's ninja stuff).  Raoul walked around saying "eeeehhhh what's up doc" so people would think he was Bugs Bunny.  Al was Hootie with no blowfish.  The hedgehogs huddled around brainstorming a while, then all at once they shouted "porcupine!!!"  Once this was settled off they went.

They went all over the neighborhood to every single house they could get to, shouting "Trick or Treat!!" and filling up their bags with candy.  Raoul brought along the skateboard so they could load their treat bags on for easier traveling through the streets.  Finally when all their halloween bags were full of candy and everyone was tired they headed for home.  The hedgehogs have short little legs and were very tired from all the walking, so they came up with a neat idea.  They all stood in a circle facing outwards, then everyone slowly backed in to the center of the circle until their spines all locked together, then they just rolled home in a big hedgehoggy ball.

Once they got home they unlinked their spiney spines and tumbled loose.  Everyone dumped their candy out.  Gustave said they could all share his candy as long as they let him have the licorice, so they all went along with that.  Then they traded their favorites back and forth until everyone had what they liked.  Time to dig in!  Of course chocolate was a big favorite for everyone (except Gustave) and they all gobbled up some of that right away.  Lola let out a loud "buuuurrrrrrppppp!" Then with full bellies, tired feets, chocolate faces and sticky fingers they all laid around on their backs with round, full bellies and went to sleep.