Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Frankie's Christmas

Our friend Frankie sent along some photos from his Christmas celebrations:

Citrus boxes are a comfortable way to travel. They're nicely padded and smell so good.

Hello, Holly! She's hanging around the Christmas tree to catch a glimpse of Santa on Christmas Eve.

The first thing to inspect on Christmas morning is the stockings. Will all my favorite candies be inside?

Friday, December 24, 2010

Dear Hippo Claus,


All of the hippos in the pod have been very good hippos this year (especially me!). We baked you some cookies and left some candy canes for the reindeer.  If they aren't hungry right away, they can always hang them on their antlers to save for later.  Have you ever considered having a hippo help pull your sleigh?  Some hippos are very big and strong, and could probably help you finish all the cookies when you aren't hungry. 

For Christmas, we would like some new hippo toys, some warm hippo sweaters, or whatever else you would like to bring.  Most of all, we want a hippopotamus for Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Santa! (and hippo fans!)

Love,
Hippo and the pod

Friday, December 10, 2010

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Christmas!

I think this tree might be big enough for all the presents to fit. 


...And there is the Big Guy, himself!  (that's me, peeking in the side)


By the time I made it downstairs, I was so excited to give Mr. Claus all the wish lists from the pod, find out what kinds of cookies he and the reindeer want for their Christmas Eve snack, give him a big hippo hug, and get his autograph, I forgot to take a picture. 

At least I have another two weeks to let him taste test the cookies, amend our lists, and take more pictures!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Free Zoolights!

It's that time of year again, and this time ZooLights is free! (except for souvenirs, junk food, and parking)


For anyone who goes, you can help some of the hungry people (and hippos) in Washington, DC by bringing canned goods to fill one of Uncle Happy's old hippo crates.  That's going to take a LOT of food. 
 

 This year, there are trains--big light up ones, little ones to see, and even one to ride!


Can you spot the hippo saying "hi" to Thomas?  Thomas is a little bit blurry because he wouldn't stop moving.


The gin-GRR-bread lion habitat contest made me really hungry; my stomach even started growling like a lion.  This one is my favorite because I also like to spend time at the National Gallery of Art Scultpture Garden


Those are just a few of the fun things to do and see.  I'll post more of my photos of the lights later!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Zoo Friends

Since I had some time off last weekend, I brought Opie and some of the other hippos to the zoo to visit some of our friends. 

The Otter Brothers invited us to play a game of tag,



Mr. Leo offered us lunch, but service was taking a long time, so he got a little grumpy,



The 'mingo party thought we would enjoy a dip in the jacuzzi and shrimp cocktail,



And the Donkey family invited us to join a game of football...or rugby...or something....



We stopped in to say hello to a lot of our other friends, too, but one of our new favorite things to see at the zoo is this nice statue of Uncle Happy!