The toys in the Playmobil advent calendar today: guinea pigs!
Recently I was telling friends about my early entrepreneurial efforts to raise guinea pigs for fun and profit (not for medical testing; I sold strictly to friends and pet stores). For several years of my adolescence it is true that I had quite the little breeding scheme, with cages everywhere and constant mayhem.
It is also true, despite what my cynical friends might believe, that guinea pigs are the smartest rodent. They can live in the house like trained dogs, walk on leashes, and if coaxed, dance. One of mine even saved a family from a fire.
Really.
Sadly I had to give up my pets during a period of household chaos, but I still like the creatures. I do not know why they are included in a plastic nativity set, but it seems fitting somehow.
On the subject of childhood hobbies, my son saved up enough money to buy a telescope. Several weeks after he took it home David congenially came over to help him assemble and calibrate the device. I cooked a proper Sunday dinner (or my version of it, with a roast chicken, coconut rice, and mountains of kale) and then scuttled into a corner, holding a magazine in front of my face while the technical work was executed.
Later we gathered shivering in the backyard to look up at the craters on the moon.