It's the first of the few days of advent calendar that I've decided to change from last year today - this scene is from the decorated lobby of the Grace Building, where readers Mike A. and Teresa S. work. Mike had told me that I needed to get down there to look at the "hard-working bears" they had going on, but when I got down there I discovered that Mike was really holding back - it's ever so much more than bears hard at work! Rabbits, squirrels, hedgehogs, raccoons, etc. etc. etc. Here the mouse butters while frogs crank and the coons pop... at least I'm guessing those are frogs, and they're the one element that sorta tampers with the illusion for me, because those amphibians would be dead and frozen were they really sitting in a snowbank. Well, and you don't pop sweet corn, either, but otherwise everything seemed fairly true to life, right down to the raccoon's well-known fondness for earmuffs, and it really is a scene of joy and delight for all who behold it.