We had all enjoyed a marvellous Christmas and a new bear cub had joined our hug - little Ilsley, who was adopted for us by our dear friends the Berkshire Bears. On Twelfth Night, Polar let us all climb the Christmas tree for the last time and help her take the decorations off it and put it away for next year.
Then we took down all the Christmas cards. "What are we going to do with all these?" I said to Polar.
"We'll save the ones with special messages in," she said. "But we might see if we can make some Christmas bunting for next year from the rest." So we bears got to work sorting out the cards with special messages in and putting them to one side.
Then I made a template for the bunting, working out what sized triangle would work with the hole-punch to make the holes for threading the string. We cut out hundreds of triangles from this year's cards and all of last year's, which Polar had saved in case she found the time to reuse some parts to make home-made cards (which she didn't).
Then we threaded them all onto some garden twine, which was quite rough and scratchy, but didn't hurt our paws as they are tough. Polar said it looked quite rustic and trendy!
"We'll have to put it away until next Christmas now," she said. But it will look really pretty when we hang it up in the living room next year - or maybe we'll be putting it up in Uppie ahead of a winter cruise!"
We all cheered, then carefully folded the bunting to keep all the triangles flat and put it in one of the decorations bags to go back up in the loft. It would be lovely to be out on the canals next Christmas, although it's lovely being in the house too.
