Well, it’s the second day of December! Today we celebrate Friday, the number 2, and my Mom’s birthday! Happy birthday, Mom! I love you!

It’s also the second day of Pancake the Penguin’s journey. I learned by reading the enclosed materials that I had misgendered Pancake, who is actually a girl penguin and not a boy penguin. This is interesting to me. As a writer, I spend the occasional hour musing about the “default character”, who is not described or not named in a story or novel; introduce such a character, and the reader will almost always automatically assume the character is a white male of about middle age until further specific description is added. There are studies that have been done about this and if I were really inclined to I would find them and link to them.

So shame on me for assuming the same of Pancake.

At any rate, today was the day to build Pancake’s house. Here it is:

I learned that her house is kind of an orange-ish yellow color because it’s the color of pancake syrup, which is the second best thing in the world, second only to pancakes themselves. I think that’s the front door I’ve shown in this picture. No other exterior wall has a door in it.

Jennifer looked at it and said, “Of course it’s the front door! It’s penguin-shaped!” And so it is! Here’s Pancake standing beside the front door of her home:

As you can see, she does fit in that door! However, it does seem that the house is almost the same size as Pancake. When she is inside, she barely has room to turn around.

Still, it’s fascinating to me that penguins have houses and that some like breakfast foods. The things you learn when you engage with nature!

P.  S. Paper House is also the name of a pretty surreal movie that came out in 1989. Worth watching, if you can find it. My sources tell me it’s streaming on Amazon Prime for $2.99.

‘Tis a frozen day for Holidailies!