Penguins and Polar Bear

Non Denominational Winter Holiday Image...that no one at my house wanted to use as a holiday card:

I was trying to come up with a Happy Holidays image that wasn’t too Christmasy. 

Unbelievably, tomorrow is the younger kid’s last day of school before the winter break, so I felt like I had to take a stab at the holiday card idea. No one was impressed....even though, coincidentally that younger kid is reading “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” for Language Arts class.

And yes, I know that penguins and polar bears reside on opposite sides of the planet.

But maybe they get together when they have time off from work over winter break?

Ocean Animals Express Gratitude

An unlikely assortment of sea creatures crammed on one napkin:

It is challenging to come up with holiday gifts for teachers, tutors and therapists.

I am always extremely grateful to those people who are not even biologically related to my kids, but are consistently more supportive and tolerant than I manage to be on a good day.

When an opportunity comes up to be officially grateful to these generous, and most often colossally underpaid people, I always feel like there is not a good solution. At school, there is an official group class gift, and we are not supposed to individually give the teachers anything of momentary value.

One of Ansel's classroom teachers won't be coming back after winter break. While I was packing up the holiday card and gift trinket last night at 8 pm, Ansel told me what he really wanted to give to Elizabeth was a napkin featuring all of the ocean animals that the class had studied.

When I showed him the napkin this morning, he said, "Wow, you got all of them on there, good job!"

Can't say much more than that. 

But, yes, I did manage to get all of them on there.  

Penguin Troopers

What's black and white and can't see where it's going?
Or maybe the image should be called "Flightless and Sightless"

But either way, late last night, it seemed somehow appropriate to put stormtrooper helmets on Penguins.

I tried to draw the new helmets from the recently released "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" trailer.  The helmets are shown for less than half a second in a flickering light.  I couldn't really tell what was going on in the front. My apologies for offending Star Wars geeks everywhere with my lazy and inaccurate helmet rendering.

We did see the recent penguin movie.  While it was pleasant enough at the time, I cannot remember any of it now, so realistic rather than Madagascar-style penguins seemed to be the way to go.

My son was mostly satisfied by the image this morning.

The cast of Goat Simulator: Giraffe, Penguin & Goat

"You no longer have to fantasize about being a goat."

Like many other of my sons' interests, I am not sure that I understand Goat Simulator.
In addition to the tagline above, the official website offers the following disclaimer:

"Goat Simulator is a small, broken and stupid game. It was made in a couple of weeks so don’t expect a game in the size and scope of GTA with goats. In fact, you’re better off not expecting anything at all actually. To be completely honest, it would be best if you’d spend your $10 on a hula hoop, a pile of bricks, or maybe a real-life goat."

One can see how that sort of game would be irresistible.  You can play as the three above animals... or at least as their destructive, dysfunctional, pseudo-avatars.  I think it is safe to say that no virtual goats are harmed during the playing of the game.  I discovered this morning that there is also the option to play as a whale.

I definitely regret not including that on the napkin.

Penguins Pull Santa's Sleigh

Our younger son says he is "into penguins."  He is also into the idea of Santa... although he would be the first to tell you that there is no such person as Santa in real life.

Speaking of reality: my kids will be eager to point out how IMPLAUSIBLE (one of their favorite words) this napkin is....as opposed to all those other very realistic napkins...

And yes, I am aware that penguins are exclusively found in the southern hemisphere.  But reindeer do not reside at the north pole in real life either.

Penguinocalypse and Bunnypse

I can't really explain this one beyond it being the ultimate combination of cute and deadly.
The penguin (of course) comes from the silly internet meme of the penguinocalypse- the origin of which I do not have time to figure out.  I can point out that the mouth on the original image seems to that of a lion, and that if one googles "lion yawning," the results are quite impressive.

I added the bunny to continue the insipid/ threatening theme, but the rabbit is definitely not as perfect a combination as the penguin.

Penguin and Prairie Dog Ninjas for Archer

Ninja Penguin with Stealth Dragon for Archer