Missing Christmas Angel Found After 50-Year Absence!

This legendary Christmas angel has been missing for 50 years! Keep reading to learn how it was rediscovered.

Angels have played a crucial part of Christmas pretty much since Christmas began. As you'll recall, God sent an angel named Gabriel to Mary tell tell her that she was going to bear a Child, despite being a virgin. Again, angels declared the Lord's birth to shepherds who were watching their sheep in the fields. So it makes since that angels play a huge part in Christmas decorations. That's why the Christmas Angel of Danville, Utah was created. President of the Town Board of Riverville, New York, Otis Ostrich, who's also the co-curator at the Riverville Museum of Natural History explains, “The Christmas Angel of Danville – or Angel of Danville for short – is a little brass angel created by a blacksmith who lived in Danville, Utah named Philip Peters in 1835 as a Christmas gift to his 14-year old daughter, Jane Peters.” He went on to explain that Jane kept the angel for the rest of her life (she died at the age of 113) and after her death, the precious angel was given to her grandson named William Peters. William, moved his family to Riverville, he sold the angel to the Riverville Museum of Natural History and it's been here ever since . . . until the tragic day of the museum's robbery of '64! An infamous museum thief from Italy named Gilbert the Greedy (his real name was Gilbert F. Mulligan, but that doesn't sound as cool) broke into the museum on December 26, 1964 and stole the brass angel, among other priceless artifacts. The museum authorities however were able to catch the thief, confiscated the artifacts, including the Christmas angel, and placed Gilbert in prison. You'd think that the problem was solved, but as a matter of fact, it was only just beginning! The next morning, the angel was reported missing, and no one had any idea what happened to it. The thief was still behind bars and no break-ins were reported from the night before. What could have happened to it? Well, no one knew . . . until an astounding 50 years later when the angel made an amazing reappearance! Lizzy brought up this story to my attention just last Tuesday and recommended that my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater go and get an exclusive at the museum with Otis Ostrich about how it was rediscovered. When asked about the artifacts rediscovery, Otis laughed. Otis is quoted for saying, “Crazy as it may be, we found the Christmas angel! I mean, after 50 years, everyone thought it would be lost forever. But it all happened when one of our janitors, James Pittman (who was a museum guard at the time), was in his room cleaning out his bedroom. He opened up his sock drawer and to his surprise, found the Christmas Angel of Danville sitting underneath his socks he hadn't worn since the 1960's! No wonder we couldn't find it!” After learning this, Daniel and I went to go see James himself and see what his reaction was on finding the angel. “Well, like everyone else . . . [I] never expected to find the angel,” he says. “After all, it's been missing for a whole 50 years. But just yesterday, I decided it was time to go through my bedroom drawers to see what I didn't want. Then as I lifted a pair of socks out of my drawer (I never liked them anyway), I saw the angel just sitting there! Gee, if I had known it was there, I would have had that thing returned years ago! However, I am awfully glad to have played a part in finding it.” The Angel of Danville is now returned to its proper place in the museum's hall of Christmas Through the Ages and can be viewed by everyone who decides to enter the museum. Otis says, “After a roller-coaster-type adventure like this one, I'm just glad to know that the Christmas Angel of Danville is safely returned to its proper spot in the museum and will be able to be viewed by museum guests for generations to come . . . so long as it doesn't get lost in someone's sock drawer again!”

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan, Joy Hammond

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Meet Harry the Hedgehog!

This week, Lizzy the Lizard interviews famous animal-star Harry the Hedgehog!

Note: This is an article consisting of Lizzy the Lizard's interview with the well-known star, Harry the Hedgehog. Please enjoy!

Welcome to Lizzy's meet and greet, where you get to learn about the star! I'm here with Harry the hedgehog, who is...sleeping?!? I nudge Harry who gives a big yawn.

“What do you want?” he asked, sleepily before curling up into a little ball.

“Why are you sleeping? It's like three in the afternoon,” I informed him.

He sat up and stretched, blinking in the bright light.

“I'm nocturnal,” he said, “don't you know what that is? Can't we do the interview at like eleven at night?”

I laugh, I just can't help it. This is too funny.

“Harry, I have school tomorrow. I can't stay up that late.” I smile. “Besides, I'm not a nocturnal species! Okay first question, what do hedgehogs eat?”

Harry scratches his head in deep thought.

“Well we can eat a variety of things like slugs or . . . cat food,” he answers.

“Cat food!?! Hehe.” I start to laugh some more.

He looks at me with a blank look on his face.

“What's wrong?” he asked.

“Oh just that . . . never mind,” I say, suppressing another giggle. “Next question, aren't porcupines and hedgehogs the same?”

“When pigs fly” he replied, dismissively.

“What?” I say, confused.

He scratches head again and blushes.

“Never mind,” Harry says laughing “That's crazy. Porcupines tend to grow bigger than us, plus their quills are longer and can be flung at the enemy. They can't shoot them, contrary to popular belief, but by thrashing their tails around, they can knock off loose quills that go flying randomly through the air and turn a would-be predator into a living pincushion!”

“Oh okay,” I say to him. “What do hedgehogs do for defense?”

“This,” Harry said, curling up into a spiky ball.

I look at him and am half-tempted give him a little shove and see him roll around.

“All right then here's the last question,” I state. “Did you...take my cookies?”

“What?!?” exclaimed Harry, totally surprised by the strange question.

I sighed, “My cookies! I left them right here before the show and now their gone.”

“I was asleep!” He grumbled.

I look closer at him and step forward.

“Well I guess you sleep eat because . . . there's cookie crumbs on your face!”

Harry the hedgehog looks at me, sleepily.

“No comment,” he states, “Oh look at the time! I got a dentist appointment . . . bye!” Harry quickly gets to his feet and flees from view.
“Hey come back here you cookie thief!” I yell before running off the set after Harry the hedgehog.

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan, Joy Hammond

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Recycling Christmas Trees . . . With Elephants?!?

The elephants at the St. George Zoo adore dining on people's old Christmas trees! Keep reading to learn more about this.

Preparing for Christmas is so much fun . . . decorating the lights, cutting down, decorating and trimming the Christmas tree, eating all the food we often associate with Christmastime and giving to others. But in the days following Christmas, Christmas stuff – Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Christmas decorations – aren't nearly as fun. Why? Because they need to be taken down and disassembled . . . well, at least Christmas trees no longer need to be! The St. George Zoo (named after the owner and formally known as the New York Africa Zoo until they got non-African animals) has the perfect remedy to deal with all those leftover Christmas trees – feed them to the elephants! So my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater and I went to the zoo to get an exclusive interview on the elephant's new post-Christmas treat. Keeper Manny Minlens is quoted for saying, “Every year, countless people simply throw their trees away. It's really quite sad, as these trees could very well be kept for a better use such as being left in a forest instead (dead trees make good homes for many woodland animals), recycle them or . . . they can bring them to the zoo so we can use them to feed our elephants!” Manny explains that their elephant exhibit contains seven adult Loxodonta africana, or African elephants (five females and two bulls) and two babies. Now, according to Manny, adult elephants can eat 330 pounds of food a day and though the zoo has plenty of money to buy food for their elephants, the zoo will always accept donations, or in this case, people's used Christmas trees! “In the wild,” Manny says, “elephants will often eaten leaves, twigs, fruit, bark and roots. Christmas trees contain most of these foods, so it really is the perfect food for them. Not to mention they get the added bonus of the sap that the tree produces. I'm telling you, the elephants love eating the trees!” While we were at the zoo, I thought it would be a great time to learn about some general elephant dining habits. Manny was happy to tell me that elephants normally have 26 teeth in their mouths: that's two incisors (aka the tusks), 12 deciduous premolars, and 12 molars. “While most mammals have two sets of teeth – the baby teeth, which wear down and fall out, and the permanent set of teeth – elephants have six that grow in and fall out during various stages of their lives,” Manny explains. “An elephant's molars are about the size of a brick and are perfectly designed for chewing up their favorite foods.” Then I asked what happens when the elephant loses its sixth set of teeth in the wild and Manny told us, “Well . . . [after] losing their last set of teeth, the elephants can't eat anymore and die of malnutrition. In fact, most, if not all, wild elephants don't die of old age. But each set of teeth do last a long time – elephants can live up to 70 years in the wild.” Then Manny went on to say that, “The teeth that we notice the most are their tusks because, obviously, they stick out of the mouth. The tusks of the African elephant are normally the longest, but some Asian elephant's tusks can grow just as long: reaching ten feet in length! But that's nothing compared to the tusks of the elephant's extinct cousins, the mammoths – in some species, the tusks could be over 16 feet in length! Growing seven inches a year, the tusks are made of ivory and are normally used to strip trees of their bark, dig waterholes and for defense. They're also helpful for extracting minerals such as salt from the earth. And somewhat like humans, who are right or left-handed, elephants are right or left-tusked! Elephants really are an amazing type of animal, which is why I love my job at the zoo!” So there you have it, the menu for the new treats for elephants at the St. George Zoo. So will you donate your Christmas tree for elephants?

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan, Joy Hammond

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We here at Smiley’s News, I have been working night and day to get articles ready. I could really use some help! So we are looking for people interested in writing (especially kids and teens). If you are interested, PLEASE(!) send an email to animaladventures@aol.com and save me from working night and day! I’m exhausted!

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Lizzy's Cheesecake Recipe

This is a slice of cheesecake I, Mr. Smiley, saved from the Christmas party we had on Christmas Eve. Wow! this stuff's delicious! Read today's article to learn how to make your own!

Oh wow! New's year eve just went by! It's now 2014! Here at the AAI, we're just cleaning up the mess we made after the party. Oh Look, Chef Rack-coon has some leftovers for tonight's dinner. Each of the employers here brought a side dish for the event. Here's a reciepe of the dish I prepared for it. Cheesecake by Annette Bruno.

You will need:

• 1 ¼ cup of graham cracker crumbs.
• 3 T. sugar
• 3 (8-oz) pkgs. Cream cheese
• 4 T. flour
• 1 ½ c. sugar
• 4 eggs, seperated
• 1/3 c. butter
• 2 tsp. Vanilla
• ½ tsp. Salt
• 1 pt. Sour cream

First, combine the crumbs and sugar in a a bowl, then stir in the melted butter. Press firmly into the bottom of a springfoam pan. Next, (the filling) beat egg whites until stiff in another bowl. Add ¼ cup of sugar as well. Beat it well and set it aside.

Second, in a a large bowl, beat cream cheese, flour, 1 1.4 cups sugar, egg yolks, vanilla and salt together until smooth.

Third, add sour cream and beat until blended well. Fold egg whites and pour it into the graham-lined pan.

Fourth, bake for one hour at 350 degrees. Then turn the oven off and open the door. Leave it in the oven for 1 hour.

Last, cool it completely before removing the sides of the pan.

Well hope you like the cheesecake! See you guys soon, this is Lizzy the Lizard wishing you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan, Joy Hammond

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We here at Smiley’s News, I have been working night and day to get articles ready. I could really use some help! So we are looking for people interested in writing (especially kids and teens). If you are interested, PLEASE(!) send an email to animaladventures@aol.com and save me from working night and day! I’m exhausted!

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Next Issue:Recycling Trees . . . with Elephants!