New Years Eve Party

Despite the single digital temperature and negative wind chill factor, I still held my famous New Years Eve party at the Woodpile. We have fur coats, so, it wasn’t a problem. My New Years Eve parties are best known for some of the finest drinks around.  For example, I served frozen wine coolattas with sunflower garnish. I make a martini that even James Bond would find exciting. I serve mine with two olives and some Godiva Sunflower seeds.

LETS PARTY!!! 

Come Get It

[My cousin Vinnie] "This looks interesting"

"Oops, did I do that?"

"Did anyone see me?"

“Here comes Chippy, I am going to put on my best innocent face.”

Bushy decided to join the party.

Time to test my signature drink!

The Big Sip

[Chippy's wife arrives home unexpectedly and finds a mess. She looks really upset.]

[Chippy] "Maybe if I hide the wife will not find me. Can you see me?"

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Santa's Treat

Although I saved Christmas with my astro-snow invention and got on the good list, I am not taking any chances. I am leaving Santa the promised bottle of Guiness and Godiva sunflower seeds. I have cleared a wide landing strip near the Woodpile for his sleigh and placed Santa’s treats where he cant’ miss them.

Everything looks perfect. Time to go back to the burrow.

I just got a call from Bushy, some suspicious furry critter is hanging around Santa’s treats. He was trying to look inconspicuous reading the “government warning” on the back label. Who reads them?

I ran to the Woodpile and found my cousin Vinnie. I asked him what he was doing. Vinnie said, “I was just passing by.” I pointed to all of the Godiva sunflowers scattered all over the snow and to the fact he was sitting in the middle of the dish! Vinnie sheepishly replied, “umm, aah, someone needed to test the sunflower seeds to make sure they were fresh.” Oh boy, my perfect treat for Santa is wrecked. I am doomed.

Bushy’s wife saved the day. She brought some fresh baked peanut butter cookies to replace the seed Vinnie ate. Woodpile Constable Wayne said he would guard Santa’s treat against any more mischief. (I took a photo of him with his best “don’t mess with me” look … pretty convincing.)

Christmas Morning

Junior woke the wife and me up at 4:30 am.He was so excited. Santa had come! Guess what, Santa had filled his stocking full of treats! I have a few photos of Junior trying to get into his stocking.

It is hard to hold on and eat at the same time

Aren’t the kids cute at this age?!

“Head First”

 

My friend Jerry the mouse lives in Mom’s house. He just posted this photo on furbook (critter version of facebook). He decided to help himself to a gingerbread man that Mom left out on the table. He doesn’t like to see good food go to waste. Apparently he forgot its was Christmas Eve. Mom took it in the Christmas spirit, said it was her present to Jerry.

Christmas Eve Bedtime Story

“Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse” … so everyone thought … including Clement Clarke Moore author of the poem Twas the Night Before Christmas. Well, he never visited the Woodpile on Christmas Eve. The Chippy family has a long tradition of reading stories on this night.

Here I am getting the candle ready for the evening. You can’t have a traditional Christmas Eve without candle light! This is Chippy Junior’s first Christmas. I want it to be special.

Everything looks perfect and ready to go. Here comes Junior.

[Chippy Jr] Dad, come quick and see what I found!!!

[Chippy Jr.] Dad, is this a story book?

Do you want me to read the story to you Junior?

Santa's Village

I thought I would treat the whole family by taking them to Santa’s Village. This is a Chipmunk scale winter theme park for kids (as well as adults young at heart.) Usually there are all sorts of winter related activities like sledding, ice skating and my favorite ski jumping. Despite being located near the north pole, Santa’s Village had a “minor” problem: NO SNOW! This climate change problem is worse than I thought.

When we arrived there, the village manager got an emergency call from the big man himself. Apparently, Santa’s sleigh runway didn’t have snow either. The elves had no idea how to get Santa’s sleigh to take off bare ground. There was concern that Christmas was going to be cancelled. Santa wanted to know if the good folks at the theme park could come up with a solution.

Experiment #1 – I hopped in the driver seat while Santa tried to give it a big push. That didn’t work so well.

Experiment #2 – This time I tried helping Santa push the sleigh. We got it to move a few feet but it was a lot of effort.

Experiment #3 – Lets try things the old fashion way. I will pull it like a reindeer. Okay, now I know why so many reindeer are needed to pull the sleigh.

 Experiment #4 – I tried praying for a Christmas miracle

 Experiment #5 – While taking a break, I was thinking about football and how some football fields had Astroturf. Then it hit me like a snowball, we needed “astro-snow.” I conferred with the elf engineering team, and they used Santa’s industrial 3-D printer to make the astro-snow. It worked perfectly!

Santa was so amazed at how I save Christmas, he crossed me off the naughty list (phew!) He asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I said I wanted to meet a real reindeer.

Letter to Santa

I wrote a letter to Santa and ran down to the Woodpile mailbox to post it.

The mailman usually delivers and picks up the mail by 2 pm.

He is late today. It must be all of those letters to Santa he has to collect.

I am going to climb up on the mailbox for a better view. I see him coming!

Everybody is probably wondering what I asked for in my letter to Santa … and the answer is nothing.

Dear Santa,

I have been good this year, well, most of the time, okay, I admit I pulled a “few” pranks. But, I am not writing to beg you to move me from the naughty list to the good list. I have already gotten the greatest gift, discovering the true meaning of the Holidays – Family, my friends at the Woodpile, and of course my awesome super fans. I am writing to ask you to spread good cheer, the message of good will and peace to one and all.

I will leave a glass of Guiness and some Godiva sunflower seeds for you. (I imagine you get tired of milk and cookies).

Your friend,

Chippy

The Woodpile