I wanna hippopandapolarmant

Kids are great for wanting fantastic animals which they will, naturally, keep in the basement and feed all the vegetables from their dinner that they didn't want to eat. In a kid's mind, it works.

I got to tag along on Christmas Eve with my dad, camera in hand, snapping pictures of kids who got to meet a 6-foot-2 Santa Claus face-to-face. The first house I went to with Dad, I asked the little girl there -- she was maybe 3 or 4 years old -- what she thought Santa was going to give her for Christmas (Santa was talking to her brothers, and she was a bit shy).

"A lion," she said, very matter-of-fact.

"A lion!" I exclaimed. "Lions are pretty big ... where would you keep your lion?"

"In the garage," she said, after thinking for a few seconds.

Her mom came over then, and I told her that we had been talking about Santa and lions.

"Oh -- the lions," she said with a slight roll of her eyes. They had apparently heard a lot about lions recently.

The older brothers had their turn with Santa first, but it was eventually the little girl's turn. She timidly approached Santa, shook his hand, and accepted the little package he pulled from his big, red sack. She carefully opened it, and inside she found ... a stuffed lion.

She had gotten her lion for Christmas. And I have a feeling that she didn't have to leave this lion in the garage.

*_*_*_*_*

There's a song about wanting a hippopotamus for Christmas -- only a hippopotamus will do. I used to have (probably still have) a children's book from my Aunt Dottie titled Please Send a Panda. My friend Brooke had a rhyme that she used to say to her daughter about "I wanna puppy, I wanna pony, I wanna car ... " (or something) ... And I really did get a kick out of the Verizon commercial where the girl really did get a pony for Christmas ... and yeah -- it does bite.

I, however, do not want a puppy, a pony, a hippopotamus or a panda.

I want a polar bear. Or an elephant.

Unfortunately, I do not have a garage or a basement where I can keep such a pet, and since I eat all my vegetables at dinner now, I don't know what I would feed it.

A zoo in Germany has a polar bear cub that it's been taking care of, and AP has been posting photos almost weekly of this little white ball of fluff. I love these pictures -- I look forward to them. I want a polar bear.

And on Nature on PBS recently, there was a special by a guy who followed and filmed a herd of elephants for the better part of two decades. Of course, there were baby elephants included, and I really, really wanted an elephant after watching one of the babies, Ebony, romp around, ears flapping, as she stumbled over logs and splashed around mud holes. Who wouldn't want such a cutie?

Instead, I have a couple prinouts of the German polar bear, and I'm relegated to enjoying elephants via television. I guess, in the meantime, it'll do. Less to clean up that way, too.

But that polar bear sure is cute ...