Birthday!

Person had a birthday recently. Birthdays are always a good thing because there are presents, singing, and cake and ice cream. Even if it isn't your birthday, it is extraordinarily fun and way better than a regular day. We woke up very early to get ready for person's birthday. Elsie thought we should wake person up right away but I told her that was a bad, bad idea. We had lots of secret things to do while person was sleeping. 

We all worked hard decorating the house.

Then we all made a card for person.

After person woke up, we helped make pancakes for breakfast. It was hard to wait until they got done but person said we had to. Person was very happy about our decorating. She said we did a good job but we already knew that. We always do a good job at things like that. We are very talented.

Pancakes were very yummy!

After breakfast we gave person our card and presents. We each got her something.

Person had no idea what was in these packages. 

My present to person was a very special pair of zebra socks. I am very proud of myself for thinking of something so nice for person on her birthday.

Person can think of me when she wears these!

It is fun to play in birthday packages!
Emmalina wants some zebra socks too!

At the end of the day, for a very special birthday surprise, we did our production of Nutcracker that we had been working on. Person was very impressed and I think we made her very happy on her birthday.

Elsie forgot some of her part but I don't think person noticed.

We are hoping that since we have shown person what an excellent birthday is like, she will know what to do when our birthday comes. It is important to set a good example for your human so they will know what to do.

Happy birthday person! We love you! 

We look extra cute on this card!

Christmas! 

When we woke up on Christmas morning there were presents for each of us under our little tree and things in our stockings. We were so excited and did not want to wait until after breakfast to open them but person said we had to eat first. Breakfast was yummy but not as exciting as presents. 

What do you think it is? 

Yay! It is a tutu for each of us like we wanted!

Person had made each of us a little tutu like we asked for. She knows how to use the sewing machine. We have decided that she is nice after all. We love her very much even though she gets confused sometimes. Now we have everything we need for our production of Nutcracker. Remember not to tell person about it since it is a birthday surprise for her. 

My tutu fits me perfectly.

Elsie and Emmalina look good too!

After we got the tutus, we opened our stockings. This was very exciting. Since it is Emmalina's first Christmas, she didn't know what to expect. Elsie and I tried to explain it to her beforehand but I'm not sure she understood. She still seemed confused about the stockings but we told her they would have fun things in them. 

What could be in here?

Oh, this is a good present!
Not a boring human type present at all.

Our stockings had a little teddy bear for each of us! Person found ones that were just the right size for us. We will have lots of fun playing with these. 

We are having an excellent day!

After opening presents, we played with our teddy bears and tutus for a while. Person did some boring things in the kitchen that we weren't interested in. However, we were happy with the numerous zebra treats that resulted. We had a yummy dinner and then, potato chips, chocolate cake, cookies, mint candy, eggnog and chocolate date balls. Person is a good cook when she makes the right things. We don't like broccoli! 

After dinner, we looked at lights on the Christmas tree and read about Christmas from a big book called the Bible. We liked this story very much but were concerned that zebras and bunnies were not mentioned. Surely there were zebras and bunnies in the stable!

We had a great Christmas and hope that you did too. Love to all our friends at Christmastime and always. Julie, Elsie and Emmalina 

Nutcracker!   

Elsie and I want to go see Nutcracker. Earlier this year we tired to order tickets. We got out all the money we had been saving in our little bank and tired to fill in the order forms. We didn't have nearly enough money though and the forms were confusing. It doesn't help that we don't know how to write! We asked person to buy us tickets but she said no. 

This week we found out that person had tickets to see the show but she wasn't planning to take us. We solved this problem by sneaking into her purse while she was getting ready. Emmalina helped us into the purse but their wasn't room for her to go too.

Elsie is wearing her pretty lace dress

Once we got to the show person discovered that we had come along. She was upset at first but then she let us peak our heads out of her purse so we could see.

Here we are at the theater

We were so excited about Nutcracker that we decided to put on our own production. I let Elsie have the part of Clara because she is little and has a pretty dress. I will be the director because I am good at that sort of thing. I'm always directing my person anyway. Person got us a little Nutcracker toy that we can use.

We studied the program very carefully for ideas

Elsie practicing her part

Me directing at rehearsal

Helping Emmalina learn her part

We still need Tutus for our production. We tried to make them ourselves but as usual sewing was difficult. We hope to all get Tutus for Christmas.  

George, you aren't being very helpful

We will be selling tickets to our show soon. Tickets will have to be very expensive because there is not a lot of room at our house. We are sure there will be tons of interest and everyone will want to come. Person does not know about the production yet. It is a special birthday surprise for her. We are sure she will be very happy because she loves Nutcracker. 

Our Christmas Tree!

We are very excited because person got us our own Christmas tree this year. It is just the right size for a little zebra and her friends. Elsie and I wanted to decorating it with our tiny ornaments right away. 

We climbed up on boxes but the top branches were still too high for us 

Emmalina is tall so we asked her to help. 

Finally we just had to climb the tree. 

Person was not happy with us because Elsie fell off the tree and hit her head. Person said that we should have asked her for help and not climbed up in the tree. She doesn't understand that climbing the tree was fun and waiting for her to come help is not fun. After we were done decorating our tree, we each had a candy cane.

Now Elsie is all sticky and needs another bath.

We are very excited that Christmas is coming soon! We plan on hiding under the big tree so we can catch Santa. Don't tell person as this is a top secret zebra mission that she wouldn't approve of. She thinks we should be sleeping on Christmas Eve.

This is a very good hiding place.
We are practicing our Santa trap every night.

Christmas is an excellent time to be a little animal. There are presents, fun things to do, Christmas trees, lights and plenty of tasty food. We plan on eating as many zebra treats as possible between now and New Years!

Christmas Sweaters! 

Recently we found out that Elsie and Emmalina's bunny cousins have new Christmas sweaters! We were all very interested in this and asked person to get us some. She said we didn't need any because we have fur to keep us warm. This is incorrect. She has no fashion sense. We all wanted sweaters very badly.

Here are cousins Bun Bun and Scruffy wearing their sweaters

We contacted bunny cousins to see what could be done about this. Bun Bun is president of B.U.N., Bunnies United Now, a secret rabbit organization, so we thought he could obtain some for us. The good news was that Bun Bun could send us a sweater! We were very excited and waited for it to come in the mail. Person was uncooperative and only checked the mail once a day. If we were in charge of mail checking it would have been every five minutes. Finally the sweater came. The sad news was that it did not fit me or Elsie. Only Emmalina could fit into it. 

Emmalina is happy but we are sad! 

Then Elsie and I decided to make our own sweaters. It can't be that hard. We have seen person knitting and if she can do it, we think we can too. We found where she keeps the yarn and got straight to work. 

Stop playing with the yarn Elsie! This is important work!

We tired very hard to knit but it was harder than it looked. Elsie kept getting tangled up in the yarn and I got poked by an evil knitting needle. It was trying to attack me! Finally person agreed to help us. 

My new sweater is nice. Now Elsie needs one. 

We are all happy with our new sweaters! It is too bad knitting is so hard because we could make lots of sweaters for all our little friends. Sweaters are very warm and they look nice too. Person said she would teach us but it is too hard to sit still. Playing and yelling are more fun for us.

Our Thanksgiving! 

We had a very happy Thanksgiving this year. We went to visit my zebra cousins and Elsie's bunny friend Lucy. We like to see them and wish they lived with us except that we don't like to share our toys. It is good when we go to their house because then THEY have to share their toys with us. 

The drive to their house is too long. Person should let
us run around the car but she makes us sit still 

Hi Michelle! 

I was very happy to see my cousin Michelle when we arrived. She and I came to live with our people when they were little. We used to live together but then our people grew up and moved away. 

Elsie and Lucy had carrots but us zebras didn't have to eat any.
Person must have read the treat tutorial last week!

After dinner we worked on putting what we are thankful for on the Thankful Tree. 

It's really tall Elsie. I think we'll have to climb it.

Grab us a few leaves Elsie

I am thankful for my person this year and Elsie is thankful for candy. I told her that they are related because our person is how we get candy. Elsie is too little to understand this though. 

We'll have to climb again to hang them.

Next we had chocolate cake which was the best part of the day I think. Michele's person made a little cake that was just the right size for us. Michelle's person may be nicer than mine. I still love my person though. 

Come on everyone and sit down. We want to eat! 

We also had some of person's dessert. It didn't have enough sugar so we added some. 

It turned out this wasn't sugar. Person says that is why we should learn to read.
We just let her have the rest after that.  We are nice that way. 

We got to spend the night with our cousins in the little sleeping bags person made for all of us. 

I can't sleep until person tells me a Pippa Mouse story

We had a very good time and were sad to go home the next day. Michelle and Lucy are good friends for us.

Goodbye Michelle and Lucy. Please visit us soon. 

Now that Thanksgiving is over it is time to get ready for Christmas. We are very excited about that and are sure person will need lots of help from us.

Zebra Treats 101

This is a very important informational lesson. With the holidays coming I think it is important for everyone to understand what is an acceptable zebra treat. There seems to be some confusion. To help clear this up I will give some examples of good zebra treats. 

Cakes! Cake is always a good zebra treat. We like anything sweet. Our person says too much sugar is bad for you but I'm pretty sure she is wrong about that. 

This was a tasty Christmas cake, chocolate and orange

Elsie and I really like strawberries! 

Cupcakes are also very good especially when they have zebra paper!

Pies and tarts are excellent zebra treats. We like pumpkin best of course but they are all very yummy.

Strawberry mini tarts for me and Elsie 

Apple pie! 

Happy zebra with pumpkin pie

Ice cream! Elsie and I like to make our own ice cream. The only problem is that it is very hard to wait for it to get done. 

Person says next time we should just go play.
Apparently watching it doesn't make it get done faster. 

It tastes better when you add berries and cream! 

Elsie and I are also very fond of chocolate. Sometimes you need to get it yourself since person is not always available or may say no which is really silly. 

Don't drop it Elsie. We don't want it all crumbled 

Chocolate and strawberries on the beach. This was a very good zebra day

I love hot chocolate too. It is especially good in the winter.
Make sure your person gives you a big cup. 

Bacon is very yummy. It is good on a holiday morning as a treat for zebra. Make sure to give your zebra extra treats on holidays!

I have to supervise to make sure person gives me enough

Zebras like gifts and presents as treats too. We like toys and other things to play with best. It turned out this present wasn't for us. Apparently you are supposed to ask before opening a present and not just assume it is for you. 

We didn't want it anyway. It was a super boring person type present. 

It is always a good idea to check for chocolate and other treats in the cookie jar. 

They should make these smaller for easier zebra access 

Elsie insisted I post a picture of carrots. I told her this was about zebra treats but she does not understand. Carrots are OK but mostly for bunnies. Your zebra may be mad if you give her carrots for Christmas! 

Now there is no excuse for bad zebra treats during the holidays this year. We don't want a repeat of last year when person made us eat our vegetables before we could have Christmas cake and pie. She was probably just misinformed. That happens sometimes. I suppose she can't help it since she isn't a zebra.