Thoughtful Gifts

Elephant music

A Hippofan tipped us to a cool musical instrument: a super-size elephant xylophone.

Elephant Musicians, Thailand

Hippo would love to hear an elephant concert one day. Maybe they will let him guest conduct. Or he could accompany them on marimba, sousaphone, and bass drum.

Long noses

Hippo has quite a BIG nose. Or at least it's a big nose in comparison to a small hippo. But sometimes he wishes he had a loooong nose.



His friends the anteaters have long, pointy noses for poking around in the sand and finding tasty bugs to eat. Well, maybe not tasty. Hippo thinks they're probably chewy and sour, kind of like raisins. But the anteaters seem to like them.

An anteater nose would be handy to snuffle for candies that dropped between the sofa cushions or sniffing flowers without having to bend down.

His friends the elephants look like tall hippopotamuses with long, strong noses. They call them trunks and use them to pick up food without a fork. They also use their trunks to play soccer, tag, and boxing.



Hippo heard a story about how a satiable elephant child got such a long nose. Maybe he should get one too!

Zoolights

I have been such a busy little hippo-getting ready for Christmas and seeing all the cool decorations around the city! I went to see the Zoolights display at the National Zoo. It was very cold outside, but very pretty right after our first snow.

There were lions...


...and tigers...


...and bears! Oh my!


I got very hungry thinking about pumpkin pie,


so I warmed up with a steaming hot funnel cake!


There weren't any light up hippos, but the flamingos and elephants were fun.



There was also a very scary python! I wonder if he is the one named Amazon in my building who keeps getting all the presents....


After I ran away from the big scary snake, I went to see an octopus


and a lot of monkeys.


By now, I was really cold again, so I went into the Think Tank to study how smart animals are. Of course, I already know all about that.


Even though it was really cold, I felt all warm and fuzzy (inside and out!) seeing the lights and my friends at the zoo. I hope they all get everything on their wish lists!