Merry Christmas!!

Christmas day has finally arrived.  TOMH&R were so very excited, they had a hard time getting to sleep last night.  Ed & Ted were particularly giggly and anxious but eventually everyone was able to snooze.  They all woke up at the same time, very early, except Emilio, Alphonso and Upyours.  They had stayed up a little extra late to try to get a glimpse of Santa but finally fell asleep in the wee hours.  Finally the others couldn't wait any longer and all yelled "Christmas!!!"   Gustave tried to get them to keep it down so the others could sleep but that wasn't going to happen. 

Ned checked right away to see if Santa had eaten his snack.  The cookies were gone, just a few crumbs left, and the milk glass was empty.  He had also left carrots for the reindeer and they were gone too.  Santa had left a note saying "my compliments to the chef" ... Ned was very pleased, he did a fist pump and said "YES!"

Lola tore open her present ... instead of getting something sparkley she got a bedazzler -- now she can add sparkles to anything anytime!  Ted and Ed got the leather suits they wanted ... including a fedora and sunglasses.  The others said they looked like Yakuza.  They liked that description.  Then Lola bedazzled them, it kinda took the edge off their scariness.

Jorgé and Chico both got sombreros.  Jorgé's was multicolored (because he's so grooooovey) and Chico's was green like his jacket.

Luigi already has a chef's hat so he got an apron that says "kiss the cook".

Fred got a seat warmer to put in his truck or zamboni so his butt doesn't get cold when he's working. 
Ned got a super pak of number 2 pencils.  He was so excited ... they should last him quite a while.  He got right to work sharpening them.

Jed got a spa gift certificate ... he hopes they have cappuccinos at the spa.  Julio got a phonecard to phone mom so she can tell Ed & Ted to cool it.  They wear on his nerves sometimes.

Guerrero was very pleased to get an ipod.  Now when he's sunning himself or practicing his ninja moves he can listen to music and block out Ed & Ted's pleas to teach them.  They're not even close to being ready.

Freddy was very pleased to get a ticket to fly to London and see the queen.  It's been a while since he's been back so he's looking forward to it.

Raoul got a longboard ... with so many of his friends wanting to ride on his skateboard it was getting too cramped.  He'll be able to fit them a lot better on the bigger board.

Pierre got a stethoscope.  He doesn't know how it works but knows that real doctors use them, so he'll wear it with his lab coat to look more official when he's working at the lab.

Gustave will be making his annual trip down to Mexico for Cinco de Mayo this spring, but in the meantime he's up here in the cold.  He got a shell cozy (like a knit hat) to keep him warm.

Al realized how out of shape he was when he did all the running in the Telus commercial so he was pleased to get a thigh-master.

By now it was getting very noisy and Upyours, Emilio and Alphonso couldn't sleep any longer.  They got up to see what Santa brought them.

Upyours got a yoga mat so he can stretch and get more flexibility for when he does his break dancing.

Alphonso got a Tide-to-go stick to remove stains ... now he won't have to wear the biohazard suit anymore!

Emilio just loves being with all his friends.  He didn't ask Santa for anything because he has everything he needs already and is very happy.  Santa gave him a goldfish named Joe.  Everyone took turns pressing their faces against the glass, watching Joe swim around in his fishbowl.  Milio wanted to take Joe for a walk, but Gustave explained to him that goldfish don't work that way.  

Once everyone was done opening their gifts and oohing and aahing at what they all got, they spent the rest of the day playing in the paper and popping bubble wrap.  All in all it was a great Christmas ... they're looking forward to the feast!

TOMH&R goes skiing .....

The gang decided to head up to the hills and go skiing!  They all put on their snow gear and bundled up nice and warm.  They put on their snowsuits, hats, mittens, boots, all different colors.  Lola was all in pink, very bright and sparkley.  Alphonso wore all white, which didn't turn out to be such a great idea.  They all lined up for the chair lift patiently and took their turns heading up the mountain.  One by one they got to the top and started to ski.  It was their first time skiing so they took it easy at first but it didn't take too long before they got the hang of it and went blasting down the hills.  

Jed liked the chair lift so much that he just rode up and down on it drinking cappuccino all day, enjoying the scenery.  After he was done riding he just went into the lodge and read his cosmo with cappuccino by the fire.

Alphonso went zooming down the hill and wiped out ... everyone looked all over for him.  With his white snowsuit he was nearly impossible to see!  Finally Pierre saw his skis and the top of his toque sticking up out of the snow and they rescued him.  Gustave told Fonso to put on an orange suit instead so he wouldn't get lost again.

Fred's used to the cold weather from driving the zamboni, so he didn't mind it a bit and was a pretty good skier.  Jorgé was in a psychedelic colored snowsuit and yelled "groooooovey!!" all the way down the hill. 

Gustave surprised everyone.  He used a snowboard (obviously ... he can't hold ski poles) and he was awesome!  He learned to do tricks from watching the Flying Tomato (Shawn White) and was flipping around all over the half-pipe, doing 360º and 720º flips and spins.  Everyone just stood back and watched in amazement.

Upyours was also very skillful at skiing ... he didn't even need any practice runs to get started, just headed for the pro slope and took off.

Al was content to just watch, he's still very tired from all the running he had to do on the commercial last week.

Ned didn't ski very much, he was still working on the correct cookie to milk ratio for Santa and finally got it figured out.  He decided that chocolate, chocolate chip with white chocolate chips cookies would be the ideal cookie to leave out for Santa.  The others agreed.

After they were all done skiing and snowboarding, they decided to make snow-hedgehogs.  They each made a big snowball and used pine needles for the spikes.  Fonso just drew his prickly spines on since there weren't any white pine needles for him to use.

When they were all done playing and all tired out  they headed inside.  They had pasketti and meatballs for dinner.  Alphonso had a new biohazard suit to wear to help him keep clean but he didn't risk having sauce, just to be safe.

After dinner they did karaoke.  Jed sang "Great balls of fire".  Ned did his own variation on Elvis' Houndog song ... "You ain't nothing but a hedgehog".  He loves Elvis songs.  Lola had to sing in between everyone else, she loves to sing and usually hogs the mike.

When they were done singing they all lined up on the couch sitting side by side with a long scarf draped across all their laps, their little feets all poking up in front.  They had hot chocolate with little marshmallows and watched "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer" on tv.  Ted and Ed were trying to act out the movie while watching it, until the others yelled "down in front!".  They badgered Guerrero a bit to see if he'd teach them some ninja fight club moves, but he still says they're not ready.

Not long now!!!

TOMH&R are getting so very excited about Christmas coming up soon!  They've all been very busy getting ready and trying to keep themselves occupied so the time flies by faster.  

There was a new character around a few days ago who showed up again last night.  He's a yellow labrador puppy named Pupparazzi.  He loves to take pictures and be in pictures.  The other day he was following the gang around snapping pics of everyone.  Last night he was busy working on a toilet paper commercial, he was auditioning for the part of the puppy who runs into the stack of toilet paper.  He had a very busy day with all the retakes and was very tired by the time they were finished.  Ed & Ted giggled every time anyone said "toilet paper".  

Ned has been very busy calculating the proper cookie to milk ratio for Santa.  He's been baking lots and lots of cookies .... chocolate chip, oatmeal, raisin, molasses, sugar, shortbread and even bought some fig newtons and oreos ... to make sure he has exactly what Santa likes.  The fig newtons kept disappearing though, Al loves fig newtons.    He needed the extra energy after running around on the Telus commercial all day, that was a lot of work ... he was all tired out.

Ed & Ted were very diligent in testing each batch of cookies Ned made.  They weren't very helpful for input though, they love cookies of all kinds and just filled their faces.  They kept singing "That's amoré", thinking it meant "give us more cookies".  They were on such a sugar high that they were bouncing around all over the place.  Guerrero was practicing his ninja moves so they tried to copy him but they weren't very successful, too much sugar.  Guerrero kept muttering under his breath "lack of discipline" and shaking his head until he finally just gave up and went to sleep in the sun.

Finally Ned had to whip up a batch of eggnog with rum in it for the twins so it would put them to sleep a while and give everyone a bit of peace and quiet.  They were driving him crazy with their antics.

Everybody loved Ned's cookies and were quite eager to test them with milk ... all went around with a milk mustache.  Alphonso had chocolate milk so he ended up with a brown mustache stained on his face ... the others laughed and kept saying "hi hitler" (they didn't know it's "heil", not "hi") to him.

Fred's been on vacation all week with no home hockey games, he'll be back on the zamboni soon but is enjoying his time off.

They're all so very excited for Christmas.  Gustave has been reading "The Night Before Christmas" to Ted & Ed every night, they're just waiting for the night it comes true.  Not much longer now!

Getting very excited!!!

All the TOMH&R friends can think about lately is Christmas ... they're all so very excited!  After they put up their Christmas branch/tree they decided they needed to decorate the rest of the house too.  They gathered up the pictures they had taken with Santa and covered the walls with them, replacing everything that was already hung up.  They hung their stockings all in a row and kept checking to see if anyone put anything in them.  Ed and Ted put themselves in charge of garland.  Ed took ahold of one end, Ted on the other end and they started to spin.  They ended up standing side by side all wrapped up in garland with just their feets and faces poking out.  Then they ran all over the place as a 2-headed garland ball, giggling and falling over the whole time.

Ned has decided to keep the time machine on the back burner until the holidays are over so he can focus all of his attention to it without distractions.  

Fred is still working at the rink doing the zamboni in between periods but he had to tell the others not to go watch him anymore, too much trouble.  They understand and are fine with it, they know he takes pride in his work and they don't want to mess it up for him.  His favorite part of driving the zamboni is when they take a break and sit in comfy chairs drinking hot chocolate with baby marshmallows.

Emilio had a great surprise for Al.  It seems that Emilio knows "a guy" and got a fake nose/moustache/glasses costume for Al so he can get back into Vegas.  What a pal that Emilio is!

The gang tried to get Ed and Ted untangled but then decided to leave them be for a while, they get into less trouble if they're confined and they're having a good time all tangled up anyhow.  Everyone loves singing Christmas songs ... they replace words in the regular songs with "hedgehogs" as much as they can.  Like "we wish you a merry hedgehog" and "hark the herald hedgehogs sing" 

What a silly bunch they are, and SO VERY EXCITED!!!