To Double-check Your Work

1. So that you don't leave an embarrassing typo in your writing.
2. Because you might have forgotten something.
3. Because you might have a new idea form while you're reviewing the previous one.
4. So that it will be the best you can make it.
5. So you can feel confident that it is ready for someone else to see.
6. Because it can be a lot of fun.
7. It could help prepare you for sharing your work with others.
8. Because it could save you from a later headache.
9. You might think of something you should have added to it.
10. Because not everything can be perfect on the first try.

Door Hinge

I'm sure you've heard this story a thousand times.
Boy meets girl.
Girl turns out to be an enchantress whose many-greats-aunt was scorned by your many-greats-grandfather.
And so girl turns you into a door hinge.
What? That's not the story you remember?
Well, it's what happened to me.
Now, life as a door hinge isn't too bad. I got to see some sights on the way to the market, and when some little old lady picked me out of the pile of junk on the table, I wasn't actually feeling too bad.
Of course, as a door hinge, I can't actually feel anything at all.
When I finally got to the old lady's house, she surprised me with her talent at installation.
How many little out lady's do you know who can swap out a door hinge in just ten minutes?
But after that, my life got pretty dull.
There isn't much to see inside a door frame, and the old lady wasn't the type to keep her door open.
Then came the day I started to squeak.
The strange thing was, my squeaking actually sounded like words!
Somehow, I could talk whenever I squeaked.
But the old lady wasn't the tyoe to let a door hinge squeak for very long.
Before my squeak could get load enough for her to understand the words I cried, she greased the hinges.
And the squeaks stopped.

Stocking Stuffers

1. Their favorite snack, such as pretzels, oranges, or chocolate.
2. A pair of headphones.
3. A letter telling how much they mean to you.
4. Socks.
5. Some bandages, in case they get a papercut while unwrapping presents later.
6. A bottle of water, so they won't have to get up for a drink later.
7. A notebook and pen, so they can write down who gave them what (so thank you cards will be easier to write later on).
8. A lump of coal (because they didn't quite make it all the way onto the nice list.)
9. Soap, preferably in their favorite scent.
10. A comb, because in their excitement, they forgot to brush their hair.

Tacos

"So, I heard you like tacos. Have you tried some from the place down the street?"
That was not what the dragon expected to hear, especially not from a little old lady in fuzzy green slippers. Screams of terror, perhaps a gasp before she fainted from the mere sight of him.
But not a polite inquiry as to what culinary establishments he'd pillaged.
The dragon decided to give a low growl, warning the old lady not to act so casual around something that was about to eat her. No matter how polite the old lady chose to act, the dragon was planning to eat her.
It wasn't anything personal, for she did seem to be a fairly nice human.
The dragon was simply hungry.
"Oh, dear!" The lady covered her mouth as she gasped, her cloudy eyes widening for a moment. The dragon gave another growl as the human finally seemed to be acting like a proper meal. "You must be famished, with how loud your stomach is growling!"
The dragon recoiled a bit as the old lady gently tapped his leg, then turned and started hobbling down the sidewalk. "Come along, dear. We mustn't wait to fill you up. Jorge makes the best tacos, and I insist that you let me pay this time."
Had this human no sense? No one took a dragon out for lunch! Still, he found himself following the strange old lady. He could always eat her after seeing what tacos were, after all. And a side of Jorge could prove quite tasty indeed.

Misleading Pet Names

1. Fluffy the snake.
2. Squishy the turtle.
3. Fido the cat.
4. Tabby the dog.
5. Leg'o'less the lizard.
6. Hairy the goldfish.
7. Tiny the Saint Bernard.
8. Goliath the chihuahua.
9. Spot the parakeet.
10. Foeslayer the rabbit.

A Dragon's Birthday

How does one celebrate a dragon's birthday?
Do you offer up princesses with hair as fine as gold? Or perhaps a brave knight for it to battle?
A chest of gold, or a village to pillage?
How do you celebrate a dragon's birthday?
Would the wyrm enjoy party hats, or an ice cream cake? Would wrapped presents be added to its hoard, or simply burned outside the cave?
When you want to celebrate a dragon's birthday, take some time to think.
For dragons are irritable creatures, and do not like any interruption to their beauty sleep.

To Eat Soup

1. Because it will warm you up from the inside.
2. When you are feeling ill.
3. As comfort food when you are sad.
4. When you aren't allowed to eat solid foods.
5. Because it tastes good.
6. During a best soup competition. Someone has to be the judge, after all.
7. When your grilled cheese sandwiches are feeling lonely.
8. When you've been snowed in.
9. Because it can feed a lot of people.
10. Because sometimes you don't want cereal for breakfast.

The Old Shoe

A long time ago there was an old shoe who belonged to a giant.
The shoe went everywhere with the giant and his best friend Lefty. One day when the three of them were on a stroll through the clouded hills, the giant tripped.
As the giant tripped, the old shoe got tangled in a roc's wing and slipped off the giant's foot.
The roc shrieked in frustration as it and the old shoe tumbled down through the clouds into open sky. With a fierce peck of its beak, the roc managed to tear the old shoe free of its wing, and tossed the old shoe away.
With a hole in its toe, the old shoe fell down, down, down.
Then the old shoe hit the ground with a thump.
Dazed by the fall, the old shoe couldn't focus enough to figure out what to do.
But once it could, the old shoe realized that it had a problem.
Besides being in a strange land with hard green and brown clouds for the ground, along with tiny twigs pretending to be trees, the old shoe couldn't move.
His laces wouldn't twitch, his tongue refused to wobble, and his sole felt awfully cold.
Without the giant, the old shoe was stuck.
But surely Lefty would let the giant know that the old shoe was missing, and then they would come find it.
Until the came, the old shoe decided to wait.
(Decided to, because making the decision to wait felt better than admitting that it couldn't do anything at all.)
And so the old shoe waited.
And waited.
Then waited some more.
One day, a teeny tiny giant with even tinier baby giants wandered by. The old shoe couldn't believe how small they were. Why, it was bigger than the tiny giants!
The tiny giants looked at the old shoe, and it felt hopeful that they might have been sent by its giant.
"It may smell of rotten cabbages and boiled beets, but we can make this into our home," said the tiny giant to the tiny giant babies. "Now go play on the laces, while I get the inside settled."
The old shoe couldn't believe what was happening to it. The tiny giant had gone inside through the hole in its toe, while a tiny giant babies were swinging on its laces!
That was no way to treat an old shoe!
But now matter how it tried to call out that it wasn't a house, the tiny giants didn't seem able to hear the old shoe.
And so the time passed, and the old shoe withered away bit by bit as the tiny giant and her brood tore its leather apart to make windows and doors, poked a chimney through its tongue, and put a cellar in its sole.
Whenever the old shoe would see clouds cover the sky, it would cry out for Lefty and its giant to come.
But they never heard.

Holiday Crafts

1. Straw hat turkeys.
2. Pinecone trees.
3. Candycane frames.
4. Rock reindeer.
5. Clay snowflakes.
6. Paper stockings.
7. Tin foil wreaths.
8. Cottonball snowmen.
9. Plastic bottle snowglobes.
10. Cardboard cottages.