AAI.'s First-Ever Christmas Spelling Bee

(Image will be uploaded soon)

In case you haven't noticed, we here at Animal Adventures Inc. (AAI.) love Christmastime! I love everything about Christmas! I love the festivities, the snow, Christmas movies (Lizzy, Daniel and I normally start watching them in October) Christmas cards, Christmas presents (which we like to open after Christmas), the decorations, the Christmas trees  and of course, the true meaning for the season: the birth of Jesus Christ. Another thing I love is the Christmas carols! They always mentally take me back in time whenever I sing them, because they were songs I and many others often sang as a child. Who couldn't love them?

In fact, Christmas carols are what inspired AAI.'s upcoming event: our first-ever Christmas-themed spelling bee! The event will be held in AAI.'s head chef Rack-coon's Cafe and it will be headed by Mrs. Lohan Gregor. As usual, when we heard the event was going to happen, my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater and I went over to the Gregor household to get an exclusive interview with Mrs. Gregor. When asked what led her to do this, she was quoted for saying, “I was inspired by my favorite Christmas carol, 'The 12 Days of Christmas'. Just the other day, I was singing 'On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me eight maids 'a milking...' and this made me think of milk, and that in turn made me think of figgy pudding, and about how funny the word is. I mean, everyone sings about it, but only a few people actually know what it is. This made me think of Christmas words in general...[and] I finally thought it would be fun to spell out all the popular Christmas words.”

Even though it's taking place two days after Christmas, there has been much interest in the project and many kids living at AAI. have signed up to take part in the AAI. Christmas Spelling Bee. So far, the contestants are as follows:

• Ryan Gregor
• Tiger Stevenson
• Claire Stegosaurus
• Rooney the Red Kangaroo
• Max the African Elephant
• Little Clint the T. rex
• Cassie the African buffalo
• Gordo the Spider Monkey
• Belle Black Bear (or as she's better known, “Little Black Bear”)
• Thalia the Bengal Tiger

Submissions for new admissions into the spelling bee were closed four weeks ago, and Mrs. Gregor says that the contestants have been studying all the words ever since. “I'm going to be the announcer who quizzes the children,” says Mrs. Gregor. “I don't exactly have to remember anything, but I like knowing what words I'll be asking them to spell out. It's going to be a lot of fun!”

For anyone interested, the event will take place at AAI.'s Rack-coon's Cafe on December 27, 2014. I think those in attendance will have a holly, jolly good time! That's H-O-L-L-Y J-O-L...

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan

Weekly Cartoons

Next Issue: Rerun Article: Waking the Sleeping Dinosaurs

Decking the Halls with Lots of Animals!

(Image will be added very shortly)

As soon as Thanksgiving was over, I convinced Mr. Smiley to let us decorate the office with Christmas decorations. Randy the reindeer was in charge of the Christmas lights while Ludwig the  polar bear went to go look for a nice Christmas at a nearby tree lot. I was busy taping snowflakes and ornament pictures to the walls. Chef Rack-coon was already excited about cooking the Christmas goodies.

“I've already planned out the raspberry cheesecake, the nutmeg drink, and my famous Christmas cookies!” he informed me.

Tina the tiger was already planning out the Christmas party and she was very happy.

“We'll have those fake silver dishes,” she stated, “The plates that look real but they're plastic.”

“OH and don't forget about the Secret Santa!” squealed one reporter. “I just love the giving and the receiving. It's such a mystery...so much suspense!”
The office was full of loud noises and excitement that it took Mr. Smiley about ten minutes to get us to notice that he was trying to talk.

“Guys! Hey, guys!” Mr. Smiley yelled, over the noise.

He finally got out attention, by flickering the lights.

“What's with all the noise?” he asked.

“Oh you know, just getting into the Christmas spirit,” I replied, with a smile. “I have a question though, where are we going to put the Christmas tree? I think it should go in the lobby or...”

“Are we going to have the party at the office or somewhere else?” Tina interrupted.

“Is anyone going to help get me some ingredients for the food!” Chef Rack-coon exclaimed.

Mr. Smiley suddenly found himself bombarded with tons of questions.
“Hold on!” He yelled, “QUIET PLEASE!”

Six minutes was what it took to get our attention.

“Thank you,” Mr. Smiley continued, “now first off...does anyone know Christmas is really supposed to be about?”

The room got silent for a total of five minutes, a new record.

“It's about the birth of Jesus,” one reporter suggested.

“It's about spending time with family and getting gifts!”

“SANTA!”

Mr. Smiley looked out us with general amusement.

“Christmas is generally about the birth of Jesus Christ,” stated one hedgehog. “But in reality, Jesus' birth was not in December, still many celebrate it just as a holiday for family or receiving gifts. Others, celebrate it as Jesus' birth when God's plan first came into action. Jesus' purpose was to teach people the way to God and eventually had to die on the cross to pay our debt of sin so that we would be free to join God in Heaven instead of going to Hell for the price of our sin. Then of course, Jesus rose from the dead and reunited with his disciples and many others before finally returning home with God.”

“Thank you, Harry,” Mr. Smiley stated. “That was very accurate. Now everyone, the party, the food, the decorations, and everything is all fun and exciting but don't forget that in the rush of Christmas, you might forget the reason we celebrate it.”

No one had talked within that whole hour. Finally everyone agreed with him, a small nod of the head or a grunt in agreement.

“Now, did I hear something about pie?” Mr. Smiley turned toward Chef Rack-coon with a smile.

Written by: Lizzy the Lizard

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan, Joy Hammond and Mr. Smiley

Weekly Cartoons

Next Issue: AAI.'s First-Ever Christmas Spelling Bee

Sarah-Neezer Scrooge: A New Twist on a Classic Tale

(Image will be added soon)

Last year, May 17, 2013, the dinosaur film Sarassic Park was released in theaters. The film did better than expected, considering it seemed to be a mock-up of Jurassic Park. Now the director of that film, Stephen Iceberg is back with an all-new movie that he believes is going to rock the theater this Christmas! The movie is called Sarah-Neezer Scrooge and as you might expect, it's inspired by the classic story of A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens and first published on December 19, 1843. The story was published over 171 years ago, but it's still one of the most beloved Christmas stories today.

After hearing about Sarah-Neezer Scrooge, my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater and I went over to Galaxy Pictures movie company to have an exclusive interview with the film's director, Stephen Iceberg, the writer, Michael Engela, and the producer, Katelene Cassidy. The first question I asked was what the story was about and why it had its specific title. Michael is quoted for saying, “Well, after we completed Sarassic Park, we wanted to create a movie based on an older movie or book, but through in some amazing new twists. That's when I figured out that the perfect story to put a new twist on was A Christmas Carol.”

“A Christmas Carol,” says Katelene, “is a very incredible and heartwarming story. It's impossible not to like it. Many adults, including myself, remember hearing the story or watching the 1951 film adaptation with our families as children.” After the success of their last film, they decided to change put a new twist on this classic by basing their main character on one person: Sarah Bus Stop Guy. (If you are not familiar with Sarah, please check out these links: link 1, link 2) Sarah's popularity as a knuckle-head has only increased worldwide (though her legitimate fan club has grown too) and the way she behaves is the perfect model for the film's “Ebeneezer Scrooge”.

“The main character of our movie is Sarah-Neezer Scrooge,” says Stephen. “She's very similar to the traditional Ebeneezer Scrooge, as we don't want to get away from that too much, but Sarah is younger and obviously female instead of male. Sarah Bus Stop Guy . . . is famous for not thinking before she says or does something, which often results in her doing something dumb. This is going to play a crucial part in the character development of Sarah-Neezer. We're going to portray her as the kind of person who is greedy, selfish, oblivious, self-centered, bratty and an annoying pest to everyone around her.” Then Michael added to that: “Actually, my co-writers and I were so determined to capture life-like Sarah behavior in the script, that we got permission from Animal Adventures Inc. CEO Nigel Milligan to put up well-hidden cameras around the places Sarah typically goes everyday in order to capture the dumb stuff she says and does on camera. Much of what we've seen and heard was worked into the script.” As with the last film, Sarah Bus Stop Guy declined the offer to portray Sarah-Neezer in the film, so another actress, Sarah Sillyheart, who portrayed Sarah in Sarassic Park, will do the part. It's amazing that they were able to get someone who looks almost like Sarah Bus Stop Guy. With some make-up, the two can't be told apart easily.

“Also, we used people Sarah interacts with on a daily basis to construct the characters Sarah-Neezer meets in the story,” says Katelene. “I don't want to reveal too much about all the characters we'll have in the film, but I guarantee that all of them have at least a little bit of inspiration from real people, not too little inspiration so that they're completely differing in personalities, but also not too much so that we don't have legal issues.”

Sarah-Neezer Scrooge will be released into theaters this Christmas season, on December 12, 2014. Be sure to get your tickets nice and early, because I believe the seats will be full . . . full of people anxious to see this new twist on a classic tale!

Written by: Mr. Smiley

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan

Weekly Cartoons

Next Issue: Decking the Halls with Lots of Animals!

Lizzy's Leap Year and Daylight Savings Time Explanation

Daylight Savings Time is carried out in the states that are colored.

Killing two birds with one stone, or as I'd like to say, diving into two topics in one article. Here are two of the most frequently asked questions by me: Why do we have a leap year? How is daylight saving time important? So I'm going to discuss those two topics.

Leap year happens every four years. This when February gets that extra day, making it twenty nine days instead of twenty eight. So why do we have Leap Year? Easy...well, not really. Let's start off with the main point: if we didn't have leap year...well, we would lose six hours off our calender each year. That means by one hundred years, we'd be off by twenty four days! Our calender has to be aligned with the Earth's revolutions around the sun, which has it's complete rotation, every 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. It's because our calender is set up with the Gregorian calender (has only 365 days), that we have to add an extra day to keep the balance of day and time in check. Well, leap year won't back until 2016 because last leap year was in 2012, but it's hard not to be a little anxious for it to arrive.

Daylight savings time is that wonderful time of the year, where we all set our clocks forward or backwards an hour. Daylight savings “tittle” is literally the purpose for changing our clocks. It's to save or use our daylight better by moving one hour of the morning to the evening. Funny how that came to pass. It just added another hour at night when we are more awake. Well that's all for today folks, tune in next time for more interesting facts on the world we know today.

Written by: Lizzy the Lizard

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan, Joy Hammond and Mr. Smiley

Weekly Cartoons

Next Issue: Sarah-Neezer Scrooge: A New Twist on a Classic Tale