Advent Calendar 2010: The Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse-Days 10 to 11

In loving memory of Tessa and taken from this CBC article.

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 10:10 DEC 2010

As we come to Day 10 of the Advent calendar and the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse we find the animals busy fixing up the house for the arrival of the Purple Elephant's herd. As the Purple Elephant explained again this year although most of us were at the Production House last year and had seen them and heard this explanation already...not all the elephants in the Purple Elephant's herd were purple! Well some were blue...some grey like your typical elephant known to man and some were even red...others brown and yes the elephants explained to us...some were even white! And no not just albinos but actually white for you see it was not just a fable...indeed the legend of the Maharaja's white Indian elephant was true! The Purple Elephant's herd also transcended geographical borders and species and so the herd consisted of Asian elephants as well as African ones and they both learned traits from each other! However the greatest kept secret of the herd that we are about to reveal only on this year's Advent calendar since he did not visit the Production House last year...is this!:

One of the members of the Purple Elephant's herd is not even an elephant at all! He is actually a wooly mammoth! Yes indeed! And no your ears aren't playing tricks on ya! The elephant herd found him one day when he had wandered down from Alaska where he had remained frozen but then thawed due to global warming in 2008 and had roamed down to Canada where the elephant herd had gone to the Toronto zoo to visit a relative there. The wooly mammoth then asked since he had learnt from the other elephants that he was the last of his kind...if he could join their herd? The leader of the herd a blue elephant called Akash said then that yes indeed he could join them and the wooly mammoth was very excited and grateful and has been with the herd since then! He was particularly aggrieved when he learnt of the passing of Tessa at the Toronto zoo the following year! As she was the first elephant he had spoken to when he had gotten to the Toronto zoo! We at the Production House had heard of her passing through the Purple Elephant who had left for Toronto when he heard the news together with the Little Mouse! And we had sent our condolences to all at the zoo but in particular to the relative of the Purple Elephant's herd who lived there.

So anyway as the Purple Elephant continued to talk about his relatives and the elephant herd approached all the animals (Purple Elephant included since he talked but also worked)scrubbed and cleaned and casted reinforcements to the Production Houses' foundation.

And so Day 10 of the Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse came to an end with the animals scrubbing and cementing well into dusk...

ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 11:11 DEC 2010

The elephant herd was almost upon the Production House oh dear me! Loud and large orchestras of animal trumpeting could be heard in the nearby with the accompaniment of heavy 'footsteps' thumping forward! The owner of the Production House looked at bit nervous but the Little Mouse reassured her that the foundations were strong this year....the monkeys had really given their all in that respect and she needn't worry! :) And the noises got closer and closer until finally!...

The elephants arrived!

A bigger portion of the herd had come to visit the Purple Elephant this year but you could see the owner of the Production House relax as the foundations seem to hold up! In fact after she relaxed a bit more she grabbed one of the monkeys and kissed them on the head! For really it couldn't have been done without the full corporation of the monkeys!

But enough of the monkeys everyone wanted to hear about the elephants! There were really in all the different colours, shapes and sizes! The wooly mammoth was indeed with them but was very, very hard to recognise as he stood there next to Akash at the head of the herd...you see they had shaved his fur off because he was coming to the tropics and so my friends the wooly mammoth had succeeded where the Canadian bears had failed! In fact you could see the Canadian bears mumbling and whispering under their breaths about you see how they had wanted to do the same thing and they were stopped by the Winnie the Pooh related bears! But then the Purple Elephant explained to the Canadian bears that it was a different case. You see elephants have non-hairy skins...and so because the wooly mammoth is suppose to be officially extinct he had to adapt significantly to continue to remain alive now that he thawed. So he had to try to be like the other elephants in this case. Also his wooly fur was much thicker and longer originally than their bear coats were!

So in the end all were happy...humans, monkeys, bears, elephants and well the little mouse but of course there still remained the matter of the cats...but at least for a while as Day 11 of the Christmas tales of the Purple Elephant and Little Mouse came to an end all of the Production House was at peace for a while as they gathered around and sang along to this john denver song...that they felt suited them all!:)