Already our New Year’s Resolutions are working out for us! If you’ll recall, last time Trixie promised that she was going to try to be a bit neater. Since then she’s spent a good deal of time cleaning up our room, and once the bed was cleared, Miss Chrissy surprised us with a special blanket! Not only is this a groovy new blanket for us, but it also has a deep History. And I’m going to tell it to you now.
As you know, “Tie-Dye” was a very popular theme in the 1960’s—back when Miss Chrissy was a girl. But, no, wait! This is not her blanket! This blanket actually belonged to her daughter, Mary, when Mary was a girl, back in the 1990’s. What does that tell us? That some things, that are truly groovy, never really go out of style, they just keep looping around and around, for each new generation to enjoy.
Mary enjoyed this blanket when she was a teenager, but now she is grown, and planning soon to move Cross-Country with her husband. She has held on to this blanket for all these years, simply because it IS so groovy, and because it has Sentimental Value. So she doesn’t want to get rid of it altogther, but at the same time, when you are planning a Cross-Country Move, it’s not always possible to take every little memento with you. Sometimes you have to make some harsh decisions.
But Mary is a smart girl (just like her mother,Miss Chrissy!) and came up with a way to “Have Her Cake and Eat It Too.” You see, a few days after Christmas, Miss Chrissy and The Man took a trip to visit Mary in the next state over, and while they were there, the Tie-Dye Blanket made an appearance. Miss Chrissy admired it, and said, “If you’re planning to get rid of that blanket, I’d like to have it! It would look great in the Whimsies’ room!”
Mary said, “I’m not planning to get rid of it, but tell you what: would you ‘babysit’ this blanket for me? The Whimsies can enjoy it as much as they like (as long as they promise to take good care of it), but it ever happens that I want it back—”
And Miss Chrissy said, “Yes! Yes! That will work perfectly!”
So, in this case, everybody wins. Mary wins because she has one less bulky blanket to pack up for her Cross-Country Move. Miss Chrissy wins because she now gets to enjoy this beautiful Tie-Dye blanket which not only reminds her of when she was a girl, but also reminds her of when her girl was a girl! And we Whimsies win, because we have a groovy new blanket here in our room in Whimsieville!
And one more thing: Miss Chrissy says she also wins because if it ever happens that Mary says she is ready to have her Tie-Dye blanket again, instead of simply boxing it up and sending it Cross-Country, she may just have to consider whether or not it’s time to make a Cross-Country vacation to deliver that 
blanket in person! Not that she ever needs an “excuse” to visit her daughter, but such a situation could be the proverbial “Killing Two Birds With One Stone.”
(Editior’s Note: No actual cake was eaten, and no actual birds were killed during the writing of this blog post.)
We’ve all had a wonderful Christmas here in Whimsieville, but now it’s almost the New Year, so yesterday I decided to sit down with the Whimsies to discuss the time-honored tradition of New Year’s Resolutions. The Whims know all about Resolutions, of course, just like the rest of us, but are usually so carefree, they don’t always feel compelled to make them. However, this year, because of our long conversation over steaming cups of hot chocolate stirred with candy canes, they got all hyped up about making some New Year’s Resolutions. After careful consideration, each has come up with a single idea about what they would like to do better in the new year. I could go ahead and tell you all about it, but I think it would be much better if I let them tell you in their own words.
TILLIE: READ MORE BOOKS!
Whimsieville itself is such a magical place, but it is not the only magical place in this wonderful world. Books can send us to so many wonderful and magical places, if only we let them. All it takes is that first quiet moment when you take the book down from the shelf, open its spine, and jump right in. Then you’re hooked.
TESSIE: MORE TIME WITH DINOSAURS
Now, having said all that, I don’t want to give anyone the impression that I’m a slob! Because I’m not! It’s just that sometimes I get so wrapped up in what I’m doing that I just keep going, and keep doing, and 
don’t really take a moment to think about the trail of stuff I’m leaving behind myself. I always go back eventually and clean up and “put away my toys,” so to speak, but I realize I don’t always do it as quickly and as considerately as I should, in view of the fact that there are many other people and Whimsies and dinosaurs that live here with me in Whimsieville—to say nothing of Mr. Squee, who is always so proper and clean, a “well-groomed gentleman,” as Miss Chrissy is always calling him. (And by the way, in case you’re wondering, Mr. Squee’s Resolution is to “Get More Rest” in the coming year.) Now it’s not that Mr. Squee would ever say anything to me about my mess—like the others do. But I know it must bother him as much as it bothers everyone else.
A little while back, Tessie promised a Fashion Show, but then we got distracted by the final episode of SHIELD and just had to stop and talk about that, and in addition, there’s been so much Christmas-type activity going on here in Whimsieville, that it’s been a real whirlwind! But every whirlwind must die down eventually, and when it does….Fashion is still there. And Whimsies are are always BIG fans of Fashion! So without any further delay, we present to you some of our latest Fashions from the Thrift Store Boutique!
I call this the “(Not So) Fancy Pants” Fashion Show because in fact our new clothes are pants, and…guess what? They’re not really very fancy. But that’s okay, because in general, Whimsies would rather be comfortable than be fancy, if we had to choose one over the other. And while I must admit we all look terribly good and terribly fashionable in our new pants, more than anything, and most important of all, we look comfortable…because we ARE comfortable.
Tessie, on the other hand, is evoking all the comfort of an evening at home, hanging out on the couch with Mr. Squee, looking positively relaxed in her new soft blue “footies.” Whenever you find a pair of pants that have “feet,” you have to say they are “jammie” pants, and that’s just fine with Tessie, and with the rest of us, because hanging out in jammies is one thing we Whimsies are very good at! The blue of Tessie’s pants might be called “Baby Blue,” and though we Whimsies are not babies, we have no aversion to the color. Notice how nicely Tessie’s pants blend with the pale yellow and blue of Mr. Squee’s Couch Blanket. He doesn’t seem to mind her sitting there with him, as long as she doesn’t try to monopolize the light from the nearby lamp. Cats love lamp light almost as much as we Whimsies love comfortable footie pants! And so, if you ask me, this is a picture of everything being right with the world.
Now, finally, it’s my turn! And even though the theme of this Fashion Show is (Not So) Fancy Pants, I think you might agree that I look a wee bit fancy in my hot pink shirt and sparkly pink sneakers. That’s the wonderful thing about Fashion: sometimes you can combine things that don’t really seem like they should go together, but when you do, you come up with some new look that absolutely works! That’s what I’m doing here. You’ll notice that my new pants are brown, and soft, and loaded with polka dots. Polka dots are always so much fun! (Why are they called “polka” dots, I wonder? Isn’t the Polka some crazy Slavic dance?? Maybe somebody thought all the dots looked like they are dancing? Who knows!) Anyway, the pants are soft, the shirt is soft, the polka dots are crazy, and the shoes are sparkly. How many differnt things can you have going on in one outfit? And yet, it all works together in perfect harmony, and besides all that—once again, this outfit has that all important quality of being completely comfortable! 
subdued pastel colors that make you want to calm down and get a good night’s sleep. But at the same time, there’s also a place for the lively look of of hot pink and crazy polka dots. It’s a good thing there are so many different types of clothes in the world, to fit all our many different types of moods. 
The Whimsies have been enjoying the second season of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, they just haven’t been talking about it a whole lot. I asked, and they said there was just too much to think about, and they weren’t really sure what they felt about everything that was happening on the show. After the final episode of the “Fall Season,” they were exceptionally quiet about it for several days. But several more days have passed now, and in typical Whimsie fashion, it turns out they have MUCH to say about their favorite TV show. I happened to be passing by when I heard this conversation:
