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Dear everyone:

I was really excited to get mail from home! I am so glad you are thinking of me because I am thinking about you. Of COURSE I miss all of you and all the fun we have in class (gee, those rockets sound wonderful!) That's not to say I am not having loads of good times here. The Pollys made me some skis and took me skiing in the back yard today! Can you put these pictures in order?

There's one of me in my COOL blue sunglasses and skis. I had a little trouble at first (snow is so...slippery) but I finally got it. Can you see the little black kitty watching me as I make it all the way to the bottom of the slope? (Her name is Pearl.)

I also tried out sledding,

but it's really hard to steer around all the cats, so then I made a snow angel.Look really closely and you can see my hoof prints in the snow and also the prints left by my beautiful antlers!

After all that excitement I got pretty tired so they took me inside and we all had cocoa and Girl Scout Cookies. Notice my moose mug! I slurped every drop of hot chocolate from the bottom of the cup. OOPS-- I got marshmallow on my nose!

To answer your questions:
How are you doing? Great! I think I might even have grown a little taller. :-)
Are you behaving yourself? What do YOU think? :-)
Are you having fun? Definitely yes, but I miss everyone.

Remember --every time you're thinking of the moose, the moose is thinking of you.

We made some spaceships out of pop bottles. Save one for me to see!
We saw you had a lot of snow in the photos. How tall is the snow right now? It snowed again today. The Pollys are always shovelling! I'll try to measure it again tomorrow.
Have you made a snow angel yet? Did you make a snowman, or maybe a snow moose? Did Mrs. Polly get to make a nice big snow lady? How many snowpeople or snow animals did you make all together? We did make a snow angel for all of you to see. No snow people yet.

How much did you like seeing the deer? Those deer are always in the front yard eating the bird seed. It makes the birds grumpy!! Here is another picture of me looking at them this morning. Can you see my antlers? I think they are going to start ringing the doorbell when the bird feeder is empty.

Back to Mrs. Polly... Geordon says that we have anoles here too. Do you have mealworms and crickets to feed it? Mrs Polly feeds the anole crickets, and he eats little beetle larva.
Stephanie G. says she really liked the postcard with the colourful bird on it. That's a bluebird, which is the state bird of New York. The funny thing is, Mrs. Polly says they are hard to find, and rare to see! Nick's favourite was the picture which shows the deer. Nick should be here, he'd see deer all the time!!!!!

Another favourite was the pictures of Syracuse, N.Y. Did you see the Carrier Dome? All the football games are held indoors! Mrs Polly says when the weather gets better we'll go on a few trips around the area so I can see the sites. I will be sure to tell you EVERYTHING!

We loved the photos of all the kitties. That black cat by the tree was nice. We liked the picture of the cat that kissed Monty! Did Monty kiss the cat back? ICK- the cat's breath smelled like cat food!!! However, I was polite and gave her the teeniest of moose kisses back.

We hope you have a good flight to Switzerland. We looked up Switzerland on the map. It's pretty small. It's near Slovakia, where Oliver's parents come from! We learned about Christmas around the world and we made flags of lots of different countries. Switzerland had a red cross on it.

That's almost right- Switzerland's flag has a white cross on a red flag. BUT the RED CROSS organization was founded in Switzerland in 1859. The Red Cross took as its emblem the RED CROSS on a white flag. Cool, huh? I learned that reading one of Mrs. Polly's Swiss tourist books. Here is some information about where we're going to be staying in Geneva, Switzerland http://www.hilton.com/hotels/GVAHITW/index.html?show=all
It tells you what time it is there and what the weather is. :-))) I hope I get a king-sized bed!!!!!

Love, Monty

PS Mrs Polly is going to take me grocery shopping soon. Is there anything you'd like for me to look for? I wonder if they have the same kinds of fruits and vegetables and products here. I hope they have the same kind of chocolate--but I can't remember the name of the kinds I like--can you help me?