Travelog for: Sheela

Hi Mum!

Last night I arrived safely in San Jose. But since it was very late by the time Maggie got home, she had to go right to bed and open me this morning. When I came out of my envelope I met lots of other very nice TV's. There was Wild Thing, who lives here. Then there was Jeremy, a sweet tiger from San Francisco,NiliHH and Sunshine from Germany, and Salmonella from the United Kingdom. They were all so sweet and made me feel very welcome. They let me know that yesterday was the birthday of one of the girls Maggie's mom nannies for. So they were busy all yesterday celebrating! Since everyone was tired we had a nice relaxing morning. First I showed everyone all the fabulous goodies vyl87 sent with me. They really loved them, especially Maggie! Then Maggie's mom needed some coffee, so she showed us how she makes it. She uses a french press instead of a coffee maker. We all had a taste, but surprisingly only Jeremy enjoyed it, and he is the youngest of us! After coffee, we all helped write postcards for Maggie to send out to postcrossers. It was a very nice morning

Happy Veterans Day and 11-11-11, Mom!!!! What an exciting and lucky day!! Maggie and the girls her mom watches had the day off of school. Since it was yucky weather outside we all made crafts indoors instead. Since Thanksgiving is coming up, we made salt dough ornaments to give to people we are thankful for. We used 1 part salt, 1 part water, and 2 parts flour. Then the girls mixed it all up with their hands (what a mess!), rolled it out, and used cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes. After we baked them for a few hours to harden and let them cool, they were ready for paint. Here we all are with Maggie's finished batch. Didn't they turn out cute?! The girls are so excited to give them out next week!

Hi, Mom! Today a new voyager arrived! His name is Squab, and he's really cool! He brought us a really nice card from Germany, and a whole bunch of treats!! Maggie was about to burst she wanted to try one so badly!! But her mom made her wait until after dinner, haha. Can't wait to get to know Squab a bit better!

Hi, Mom. Today was Jeremy's last night with us. Since it was a special occasion, Maggie's mom gave us some cake! It was delicious After we finished up, we all gave Jeremy hugs and told him good luck on his travels. I'm glad he gets to go home for Thanksgiving, but we will miss him!

Today was very exciting! Maggie's first and most special TV came home! Her name is Gooble and she had been visiting fleursmum in Gisborne, Australia! She had an amazing time over there and she brought TONS of goodies back for Maggie Gooble also has a new friend named Squakers that she got at an aquarium. They are both really really nice and I am glad they made it home safe. I can't wait to hear all about of Gooble's adventures!!

Hi Mom, today the girls were home from school since its Thanksgiving break. Normally they like to hold off on all Christmas activities until after Thanksgiving, but they were tired of turkey projects so we got started on Christmas ornaments really early. They know an older gentleman who enjoys wood working and makes lots and lots of cut outs that he sells at a great price. So we have bunches of things to paint this year, which made starting early a really good idea! Here we are with the before and after. Didn't the girls do a stupendous job?! After that the girls made a fort and us TV's got to play in it for a bit after the girls were done playing. It was a fun day

Today was really fun, Mom! We went to the movies Maggie's mom needed to pick up her car in Morgan Hill so we decided to go see Arthur's Christmas while we were there. Us TV's got to share a BIG popcorn and everything. It was a really funny movie and we all enjoyed it. When we were leaving the theater we saw a set up promoting the new Muppet movie. Maggie says we should all see that next.

After the movies we grabbed a quick bite and then headed to Christmas in the Park. It's one of San Jose's biggest and longest running traditions. They decorate all of Cesar Chavez park in downtown San Jose with trees and lights and Christmas displays. Businesses, schools, council members, girls/boy scout troops and other groups sponsor the trees and decorate them so each one is different. We walked around and took pictures with a few of the displays, then we had one of the famous hot chocolates. It has hot chocolate (of course), whipped cream, chocolate sauce, sprinkles, a candy cane, and a cherry with a little snowman decoration. It probably has about 1,000 calories, but it's a once a year treat and it is tradition Since it was soooo big, all of us TV's shared it. And let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS! On our way out of the park we took a picture with the serpent statue. It's for Cesar Chavez, who the park is named after. The people who made it say it's a dragon, but everyone who lives in San Jose jokes that it looks like a pile of poo, haha. But it is a San Jose landmark so I was glad to see it!

Hi Mom. Today Maggie and her mom were checking out all of our TV profiles and saw that one of my life missions is to meet a dog. They felt kind of silly for not noticing that before, so they took some pictures of us with their dog Molly right away. She is a King Charles Cavalier, and she is super sweet. She's funny because she doesn't like to play with toys, not even fetch! She doesn't realize she is a dog, she thinks she is one of the humans. But that's okay, because it means Maggie never has to worry about Molly chewing anything up, like new shoes or worse,  a TV! Although Molly is very sweet, she wasn't very interested in having her picture taken today. Maybe she thought she was having a bad hair day, haha. But here are some of the photo's that weren't too bad. Hope you enjoy them!

Today was Squabs last day with Maggie. He is off to Finland! We all gave him big hugs and wished him luck on the rest of his travels. Bye Squab! Take care

Hi, Mom! Today we went to Santa Clara to see the Global Winter Wonderland. It is where people create huge lanterns out of recycled materials that represent places from all over the world. It is the first time it has come to the United States, and we were very excited to go see it. The lanterns were so beautifully made and some were very intricate. We walked around for quite awhile looking at all the lights, but it was really cold and we started to freeze! So we headed inside and listened to a live band while we warmed up. They were only okay. Then we went to see the rest of the lights and went through a dinosaur maze. There was a giant T-rex that moved and roared, it was neat Hope things are going well at home!

Hey, Mom. Today we drove down to the beach! We didn't really go to the beach though, we went to a town near the beach called called Pacific Grove. Every year thousand of Monarch butterflies fly here during their migration. They cluster in the trees and look like dead leaves to the untrained eye. Luckily, we knew what to look for. There were 12,500 butterflies the day we went. If it is too cold, the butterflies can't fly.Today was pretty cold, so they were mostly in the trees. A few were on the ground and other places trying to move their wings to warm up so they could fly up to the tree with the other butterflies, but they weren't very successful We took tons of pictures!! I hope you enjoy them See if you can find the clusters of butterflies in the not zoomed in pictures. Here is a good site for you to look at so you can learn more about the Monarch migration. There was a wonderful docent there that taught Maggie and us all about the life cycle and migration of the Monarchs. It was very interesting! After we saw the butterflies we went to Monterey, CA to eat at a restaurant on the pier. It's called Bubba Gumps, and it is supposed to be the restaurant from the movie Forrest Gump. Have you ever seen that movie, Mom? It's pretty good. Miss you lots!

Merry Christmas Eve, Mom! Today we are making cookies for Santa. We decided to frost half of them, so that Santa can decide which he likes best After making cookies we lounged around in our pajamas most of the day, and then went to a nice dinner. After dinner and some more lounging around, we went to midnight mass. After church it was 1:30 in the morning, so we put out the cookies and note for Santa. We only had soy milk since Maggie can't have regular milk, so she is hoping Santa likes soy milk too. Then Maggie tucked us in with some of her favorite lovies. I can't wait for the morning!! I hope Santa comes

MERRY CHRISTMAS, MOM!!! Exciting news, Santa came!!There were sooooo many presents. It took an hour and a half to open everything! Although, Maggie is a bit slow at opening gifts. Most kids tear through them, but Maggie likes to open them slowly and enjoy each gift before moving on to the next I hope you had a wonderful Christmas at home! Love you!

Hello again Things have been a bit boring while Maggie's been on vacation, so yesterday we decided to go on a trip. Now here we are in San Simeon! We got in after dark, so we had to wait until today to go see the seals. This time every year, elephant seals come to shore to have their babies. It is right at the start of the birthing season! The first beach we went to didn't have very many seals, but we were able to get very close to them. They can weigh several tons, so you are not allowed to go onto the beach with them. But there were some rocks a few feet away that we sat on to observe from a safe distance. The first beach had some babies that were probably a few days old. They were very cute But mostly, this beach had bulls fighting over the harem. See the big bull with the red eyes? He kept staring at us! After an hour or so we decided to head down to road to another beach with a bigger group of seals. This one had a board with information about the seals. From reading the board we learned that when you see a group of seagulls around a seal, it means a birth is imminent. Almost right after reading that we saw a bunch of seagulls fly around a seal! We ran over to try and catch a birth, but we were too late. Turns out the seal had delivered her baby a few minutes earlier, and the gulls were coming for the after birth. Kind of yucky, but the gulls like to eat it! Within a minute or so the seal passed the after birth and the gulls grabbed it up and started fighting over it. Once it started to get too cold and windy we headed even further down to road to Moonstone Beach to watch the sunset. The picture doesn't at all do it justice. It was really magnificent!! Wish you could have been here!