So, I arrive this Christmas without any issues at all- waking before my alarm and remembering to pack some food.

The Keepers have left me some notes:

Compared to Christmas 2015, there are a few primary differences I notice right off the bat:

• I am using a smart phone this year to take pictures… no more flip phone for me.
• I set the logbooks up on the Vet Room table rather than the counter- apparently sitting is a desire this year.
• I take my glasses off to read the notes. My regular glasses are no longer cutting it and I cannot see up close anymore without reading glasses (which are somewhere else).
• I have misplaced nothing this year (so far) except my glasses, although I always find them by some logbook. I even remember to take the salamander medicine out of my pocket and put it back in the treatment tray.

Further differences between 2015 and 2016 continue to be noticed throughout the morning:

• It was easy to find the wolves! Our new female wolf, 1858, is out and about a lot. (Our former female wolf, who is now in Chattanooga, was almost always in the den). Both of our wolves were down near the pool this morning and were ready to eat everything I tossed in the yard.
• Mimi sleeps through my bear house visit. I tried to be very quiet as to not wake her and have her huff at me and apparently I was successful.  (Autumn, I said nothing to Mimi- hope you forgive me).
• I choose to leave the bluejay in the play pen in an attempt to not have to catch him this year. Success!
• Volunteer Harriet is here to help. (No Karyn this year). Harriet was a huge help today in the farmyard and washing dishes (which means I didn’t get soaked as I usually do when I do the dishes).
• The Farmyard takes longer with the addition of cattle and chickens, neither of which were part of my 2015 Christmas.
• Very loud Christmas music can be heard throughout Explore the Wild. I believe there must be a church on Roxboro Rd that is sharing in the spirit of the day.

It’s noonish and the day has been smooth: I got everything I wanted to get done before Harriet arrived at 9:00. My only minor snafu was with cleaning the blue jay area. I did not want him to leave, so the two of us stayed in the play pen together while I pulled up all his newspaper (half of which was soaked from a bath he took yesterday) and replaced with new. It was kind of crowded and I stepped on his food pan, making a mess of his food. No big deal though as I scooped it all back into the bowl.

I found all four bears sleeping where I expected (Mimi in the house, Gus in the cave, Virginia in her bed of pine straw by the vestibule on the cliff, and Yona in her rock and pine straw bed on the other end of the cliff. Yona even got up to take her meds without much effort at all (thanks to Virginia who walked right over next to Yona causing a bit of a ruckus).

I fed the wolves and headed to lemurs without any problems. I found all nine lemurs, cleaned up and fed them. (Not sharing any lemur photos since they all were pretty poor shots).

While Harriet and I were in the Farmyard, the sun came out and I got quite toasty. I took Gypsy’s coat off and let her wander around while we cleaned the farmyard.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas day. I’ll be back this afternoon with my assistant:  my daughter Mir.

If anything exciting happens you’ll learn about it in a future post.