Christmas Cards, and...

We hope you all had a great holiday this year! Santa visited our house and left us some great jars of honey, little boxes of cookies, and some new DVDs to watch over the winter. We also received some wonderful Christmas cards from our pals, and as you can see, some nice fluffy snow.

First we received a card from our pal Sandy.

and a fun letters present for us to make word puzzles! Jerry had fun putting words together...

and then he helped Ben to put words together.

Thanks Sandy! Next, we got a fun photo card from our pal Little Fox.

Thanks Little Fox! We also received some online greetings from Marlowe and Buttons, and a jar of honey from Ajdin! Finally, we also received a fun handmade card from Droopy.

Thanks Droopy! Hey...wait a minute! Look who's here!!

It's our pal Karl!

Regular readers of our blog will remember that Karl is an exchange student snowman from the far north, way up in the Yukon, and stayed with us last year. Well, Karl actually stayed in our back yard, because if he stayed inside the house he would M E L T (and we always spell that word, never say it,  because it would not be polite to Karl). Karl took a couple classes in Arctic Studies at the University of Minnesota. Well, he is back for another winter term and will be staying with us again. Karl will be taking intermediate snowflake architecture, advanced ice fishing, and an introduction to global warming, which is beary important for snow persons because they need to know if they need to move farther north! We're really glad to be hosting Karl again.

Did you get any snow for Christmas?

Cards and a Package

During the holidays we received some beary nice Christmas and New Year's cards...

There were really neat photo cards from Ajdin and Uncle Tibbs, and another from Little Fox. The homemade tree card was from Buttons and Scruffy and they included a little felt Christmas tree ornament! The rabbit in a Santa hat is from Ute and the flock (whose blog we can't find anymore!). The other rabbit card is from Bob T. Bear, and finally the little winter scene card is from our Canadian cousin (well, we think he's our cousin because let's face it, the resemblance is obvious) and pal Sandy. Thanks everyone!

We also received a package from Ajdin...

which Jerry and Ben immediately began to open by ripping the paper off. "What iz in thiz box!" says Jerry excitedly.

"Oh" replies Ben, "itz a...  a.... styreefoam box. Um, thankz Ajdin, thatz, uh, just what we needud."

Jerry and Ben had to be reminded that there was probably something inside the box...

"Oh wow" says both Jerry and Ben, "itz a mug for our hot chocolate...with our fazez on it! YEAH!"

Photos from man of our winter posts: sledding, shoveling snow, opening Christmas presents, making Christmas cookies, cool! Perfect for a great mug of peppermint hot chocolate! Thanks Ajdin!

Happy New Year to all our blog pals!

Catching Up on Mail in the New Year

It's a BEARY cold day here where we live, so we decided to catch up on some of the wonderful holiday cards that we received.

We received a fun and snowy card from Little Fox; that looks like a great hill where we could go sledding!

We received another snowy card from our pals Buttons and Scruffy, and the sent a beary cool snowman tea-light cover for us! Thank you Buttons and Scruffy, we love it!

Ajdin sent us a beautiful holiday card; he is practicing his pawwriting and spelling, just like Jerry!

Our pal Ute and her flock and from Germany sent a beary fun card with Santa's on it!

Sandy sent a Christmas card too; Ben has that same outfit! It looks great for Christmas! We also received a little package with maple syrup suckers (already gone!) and little packets of honey! Now how did Sandy know that we love honey??  Thanks Sandy!

Finally, we received wonderful Winnie the Pooh book from our pal Beanie! We love it Beanie, thanks! We're reading a few pages every day, and Jerry enjoys looking at the big pots of honey on the cover!

Thanks to all our blog pals for their great holiday greetings and cards. We hope your 2014 is beary, beary wonderful!

Mail from Buttons & Scruffy!

Today we received a beary nice postcard from Buttons and Scruffy (it even had a bear stamp)!

Buttons and Scruffy are visiting Niagara Falls, for the second time in six months! "They shur ar luckee bears!" said Ben. Niagara Falls is beary beautiful indeed! We visited there last year and had a great time.

"Buttons say he see sum bees at the falls. Me no see any bees in thiz pustcard" remarks Jerry. Ben thinks the bees are too small to see in a postcard. Bees, of course, are most important, because they lead to honey. Ben giggles "We see pluntee bees thiz summer Jerry." Thanks for the postcard Buttons and Scruffy!

Catching Up on a Cold Winter Day...

Well blog pals, we had a beary busy, but beary nice Christmas and New Years, and on this cold winter day, we thought we'd catch up and post some thank you messages, and attempt to solve a mystery...

First, we need to say thank you to our pals Buttons (and all the bears at Buttons BeCause), Bob T. Bear, Beanie and Hammie for the beautiful holiday cards that they sent! A beary special thank you to Ute and the whole flock for a special package of holiday goodies that we received...

...which is the reason for our mystery story. Ute's package contained some yummy chocolates (already gone), some cute holiday ornaments (already packed away for next year), and some delicious candies that we thought we could make last until Valentine's day, that was until today's mystery!

This morning, Ben was helping to make coffee. Jerry and Ben don't drink coffee, they prefer hot chocolate or tea with honey, but Ben likes to help around the kitchen, so he was carefully measuring the coffee: "I furst add skoups of kofee" he was explaining...

...when he noticed a shiny object in the living room. "Wat iz that thingee on tHe grownd?" he asked.

It looks like a kind of shiny piece of paper that was wrapped around something. "Itz a kandee rapper!" declared Ben. But wait, there were more things!

Lots of candy wrappers, in fact a trail of candy wrappers, and even some little Christmas ornaments from Ute's box. "Luks like we need Sandy Sherlock to hulp uz sulv thiz mysturee!" noted Ben. He continued, "Hey, letz fullow that trale!" So Ben followed the trail of candy wrappers, only to discover...

Jerry! Ben discovered Jerry lying on the carpet, surrounded by candy wrappers! Jerry appeared to have  such a full tummy that he was groaning a little. "He ate two manee kandees!" said Ben, who then shook his head.

Well blog pals, the mystery is solved. "Elumentaree, My deer blog pals" giggled Ben.

Bear Olympics - Team USA & Final Voting!

Team USA--Ben, Jerry and Jake--(photo above, left-to-right) is ready for the Bear Olympics, and we're very pleased to host the following beary important contests:

ENTRIES & FINAL RESULTS!
Judging for our contests will be a little different from some of the other bear olympics contests (just to make it easier): Jerry, Ben and Jake will each give a score of 1-to-10 to the entry, and the final score will be the average of those 3 individual scores. We'll be sending some little prizes to the winners.

The judges were beary impressed with all the contestants! You all did a great job!

Contest 1: Napping
photo of the contestant napping or hibernating


Gold Medal, Fitzwilliam Toffypenny
Silver Medal, Sullivan McPig
Bronze Medal, (tie) Sandy & Buttons BeCause


Sullivan McPig (The Netherlands)
Judges' Results:
Jerry: "Sullivan iz snoozing, zzzz." 8.5
Ben: "That blankie lookz nize!" 8.5
Jake: "Awesome dude!" 8

Sullivan is napping on the couch with a nice warm and soft blanket.

Fitzwilliam Toffypenny (The Friendly Company of Bears, "Granny K"), (Great Britain)

Judges' Results:
Jerry: "I sleep when I reed too muzh two!" 8.5
Ben: "The bouk iz a nize tuch! Beary creetive!" 9
Jake: "Awesome dude!" 9

 If you listen carefully, you can hear Fitzwilliam Toffypenny snoring!

Alexander Mackenzie Bear (Sandy), (Canada)

Judges' Results:
Jerry: "Shhhh, don't wake Sandy up!" 8
Ben: "Duz Sandy wear hiz hat two bed? Canada muzt bea culd!" 8
Jake: "Awesome dudes!" 8.5

Buttons BeCause (U.S.A.)

Judges' Results:

Jerry: "Buttons needz to burrow Sullivan's blankie!" 8

Ben: "We luv naps too! Napz are beary gud!" 8.5

Jake: "Awesome dude!" 8

Contest 2: Gardening
photo of the contestant gardening or in the garden

Gold Medal, (tie) Sandy & Buttons BeCause
Silver Medal, Teddy
Bronze Medal, (tie) Bob T. Bear & Zotti

Alexander Mackenzie Bear (Sandy--flower gardening), (Canada)

Judges' Results:
Jerry: "Thatz a beary nice garden!" 8.5
Ben: "Where iz Sandy? Oh, there he iz! I like all the difrant kinz of plantz." 9
Jake: "Awesome dude!" 9

Alexander Mackenzie Bear (Teddy--herb gardening), (Canada)

Judges' Results:
Jerry: "Yummy, mint!" 9
Ben: "Teddy iz a gud gardener, look at all the mint!" 8.5
Jake: "Awesome dude!" 8.5

 Alexander Mackenzie Bear (Zotti--vegetable gardening), (Canada)

Judges' Results:
Jerry: "Beary purty!" 8
Ben: "Zotti muzt be proud of thoz veggees!" 8.5
Jake: "Awesome dude!" 8.5

Bob. T. Bear, Esq. (Great Britain)

Judges' Results:

Jerry: "Thatz a nize shuvul, kan I burrow it?" 8.5

Ben: "Are you growing slugs Bob? (giggle and toe wiggles)" 8.5

Jake: "Awesome dude!" 8

Bob. gardening with marigolds and slugs

Buttons BeCause (U.S.A.)

Judges' Results:

Jerry: "Thatz a beary nice garden!" 9
Ben: "We luv all the photoz Buttons!" 9
Jake: "Awesome dude!" 8.5

one gardening photo among many; check the link above for more

Postcards!

We recently received TWO postcards in the mail. The monkey card is a watercolor of lion-haired macaque that our pal Beanie; she and Andrea visited the Tate Museum in London (they are so lucky!). Our dog Boo was taking a close look at that macaque because he thought for a moment that it might be real. The second card is of a black bear!!! Our friend Buttons was visiting friends in New Hampshire and sent this card to us! The bear says to send more tourists to New Hampshire because they are delicious (giggle). Thanks Beanie and Buttons!

Do you often receive postcards from friends? Do you have a postcard collection?

Guess who?

Jerry spent some time this afternoon drawing a picture of one of his friends. Ben helped out by making sure the colored pencils stayed sharp and sweeping up the bits of eraser. Can you guess whom Jerry drew today? You guessed correctly, it's Buttons! Do you like to draw?