Starting on a fresh page...& just in time for the holidays!

Dear Diary,

Hello, old chum! It's me, Olivia. How are you faring today? I hope you're doing good. Me? I've been doing pretty fine, myself...

Can you believe it, Diary? Just two more days, & I'll be off for the Christmas holidays! I can't wait until we all get out of school early, & head on home to start spending our winter vacation...I am definitely looking forward to our release on Friday afternoon! ^_^

Don't get me wrong, though--I do love school very much, but time off every now & again is also fun. :) And, besides, I'm sure the teachers could use a break, too; after all, it must be hard work for them to teach a classroom full of rodentlings almost every weekday, from 8 to 3...Luckily, most of the kids (including my friends & me) try to be on their best behavior, & be good students--which makes the teachers' jobs a lot easier!--but not every student is as well-behaved as me, or Mumtaz, or Cherise, or Luciano, or even Audrey (& she's usually the member of my gang who is least well-mannered!)...

Ah, well...At least, all the teachers & students at Basil Of Baker Street MSD (Municipal School District) will have four whole weeks where they won't have to worry about anything but their own fursonal business. Aside from my family's usual cases or errands, I don't think I'll have too much to do on my schedule, except for sledding, playing in the snow, hanging out with my friends, going Christmas shopping, visiting my god-aunts & god-uncles in Essex, seeing a few movies, & chilling out at home...among other things. ^_^ (On second thought, maybe I will have a lot to do during winter break, after all!)

Although to be perfectly honest with you, school wasn't very busy for us today, either. We pretty much just did our own thing, & had "pre-holiday parties" in every class. What's a "pre-holiday party", you're probably wondering? Oh, it's like a Christmas party, only you celebrate Chanukah & the Pagan Winter Solstice at the same time (we would also celebrate Ramadan, too, but it doesn't take place in December this year--long story about that!). Fursonally, I think it'd be a lot cooler if all the kids of different religions had this kind of party in school; that way, they'd all be able to get together & have fun, & even get a chance to learn about each other's cultural practices, & nobody would feel left out from anything! That's my kind of a school party! ^_^

Oh, I'll bet you're curious to know about all the stuff we did at the pre-holiday parties...am I right? Well, I'll tell you, Diary; all the kids in the class exchanged presents, worked on activity sheets & coloring pages related to the different holidays, sang songs, told stories, played games, & had all kinds of delicious refreshments...It was a lot of fun for everyone! ^_^ Except for the Whitcomb sisters, & their friends, Mary & Elaine; the last girl in their clique, Lillian, was happy to stay & party with the rest of us, but the other members of the Fickle Five "demanded to be taken out of the classroom immediately", so they could indulge in "alternate activities"...(scoffs) What a bunch of xenophobic jerks! I don't understand why Lillian doesn't just dump those losers, & go find some pals that I'm sure she'd really want to hang out with? Or, maybe, she just "sticks with them" to keep them in line? That'd be a likely explanation, I think...

Well, anyway, today was a very good day, & I hope tomorrow (& Friday) will be even better. :) I'll be talking to you again sometime tomorrow evening, my friend!

Much love,
Olivia

Just another day in Mouse London...

Dear Diary,

Hello, again, it's your dear friend Livvy. Another day has gone by in Mouse London, & now I'm jotting down the events of the day before Daddy & Basil go to tuck me in.

OK, after I got up & had breakfast, I went to my mega-playroom & turned on my big-screen TV so I could watch cartoons. My most favorite show, "Punch & Judy", happened to be the first thing on today; you won't believe how hard I was laughing at the antics of the squabbling couple! Then after cartoons were over, I went over to the London Mouse Mini-Mall to meet up with my friends. Although it was disappointing that Ben, Akihiro, Izzy, & Armando couldn't come with us today, Luciano was there, along with my girlfriends Yukiko, Thi-Tien, Dong-Mei, Audrey, Bianca, Santusa, Cherise, & Mumtaz. We were all going to attend a book-signing--& Thi-Tien was going to be the autographer! (You see, Thi-Tien is one of the best mouseling authors in London [not to mention her home country of Vietnam], & she's written a lot of best-selling books.) We stayed at the mall for over two hours, watching Thi-Tien sign every single copy of her most recent junior detective novel--but it was well worth it!

After the book-signing, we went over to Luciano's family's pizza parlor for lunch. As usual, the Mozzarellos were more than happy to give us a free meal of pasta, pizza, & soda pop. Not to mention their newest dessert, chocolate lasagna...mmm!

Once we had finished our meal, Luciano took us to the Crystal Palace near Piccadilly Circus. There, all kinds of new inventions for the humans were being displayed, from telephones to elevators! We rodent-folk already have those things, though--Luci just took us so we could see the looks on the people's faces; it's like they've never seen a lift before!

After a long while of playing with toys in my mega-playroom, my friends & I went to visit Daddy at the toy shop he works in. My girlfriends & I helped him with making his toys, while Luciano helped out with the customers. Once the sales were done for the day, Daddy took my friends home, & after bidding everyone "goodbye", we headed off for our own house, &, well, you get the picture.

Well, have to go to bed. Daddy & Basil are just dying to sing my sleepy song tonight...

--Much love,
Livvy