OLD MAN WINTER IS ON HIS WAY!!

Up near the North Pole lives a bear named    Puder.  He had an Eskimo friend named Issy.  These two fellows had learned to live together and become good friends.  When you live in a place where your neighbors are miles away, there is no McDonald's, or even a grocery store.  A friend becomes a very important thing!  ANY FRIEND!

Puder Bear would go out each morning and look out over   the frozen lake, checking to see where the best place was to do some ice fishing.  Fish is what polar bears and most Eskimos live on.  Sometimes Puder would find a nice fishing hole all ready to go that Issy had left behind the day before.  Some days he'd get lucky and catch a nice fish for breakfast just by reaching down into the hole.

Today wasn't one of those days, so Puder went home and got his fishing pole and caught a good breakfast.  In the winter time (which is every day in the North Pole) there is not always a lot to do.  No cable TV or video games.  No computers, telephones or even electricity for radios.  It's like camping out everyday of the year! 

The bears, Eskimo, and all the people who live there have to make fun for themselves and they do.  Issy has a toboggan he loves to ride down hills.  Sometimes he gets too brave and chooses a hill a little to steep. Puder always watches from the bottom and he can tell when Issy has picked a hill to big.  The look on his face as he's coming down says it all!  Puder loved his sled and takes a ride almost everyday.

Most of us would never believe it but one of Puder's   favorite things is to swim in icy water.  Polar bears have fur so thick they could never live for long in hot weather, without some ice around and very cold water.  Even zoos have to provide them with huge blocks of ice.  Some fresh fish, a big block of ice and very cold water.  That's all you need to have a very happy Polar bear! 

Along came Issy through the snow.  He had news he had heard in the   small village earlier that day when he went to shop for supplies.  Herman, the man who ran the little store told Issy that their good friend Elizabeth was coming for a two week vacation with her family.  Every year since Elizabeth had been just a baby, her family visited a small cabin that they owned.

Elizabeth always loved looking out the plane window and seeing the North Pole sign.  She loved the snow (at least for a couple of weeks) but most of all she loved seeing her friends.  There were several children in the little town she knew.  Of course two of her very favorites were Puder Bear and Issy.

Elizabeth and her friends wasted no time gettin on Tim's toboggan   and down the hill they went.  Oh how much fun they were having!  Elizabeth had brought a snow saucer to ride on.  She shared it with all the kids because they had never seen one before.  She thought to herself, next Christmas she would send them each one for Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, after Santa got down   her chimney, she got something very special.  Something she had been dreaming of all year!  You see, Santa had trouble getting down the chimney because he had been to a lot of houses before he got to Elizabeth's.  At each one the children had left Santa great cookies and he had eaten everyone!  He and his full belly had a bit of a hard time getting down Elizabeth's chimney. 

Santa must have finally made it down that chimney and even though he ate the cookies Elizabeth left, he finally wiggled his way back out too! There they were, the glistening ice skates Elizabeth had wanted for so long!  She had wanted to learn to ice skate so she could join her friends when she and her family went up north to their cabin.  They all knew how to ice skate.  A lot of them learned to skate about the same time they learned to walk.  In the area they lived in you almost had to know how to skate and ski because everything was covered with either snow or ice.

Puder decided to walk over and get Issy.  He had      heard everyone was going to have snow games and he didn't want to miss a thing!  He peeked in and yelled for Issy but didn't hear or see anything.  He wondered if Issy had gone on without him.  That wasn't like Issy though, he was  Puder's best friend and wouldn't leave him behind.  Puder heard something so he lifted the igloo to take a look.

That silly Issy was playing games with Puder.  He was hanging on   to the roof so Puder couldn't see him.  When Puder did spot him they had a big laugh and off they went to watch the games.  All the kids where there and some adults too.  Puder settled into his nice lounge chair to watch it all.  Puder liked to watch but he wasn't big on getting a lot of exercise.

Tim was a great skier, it was fun to watch him jump some of the hills.  Tim's friend Josh was a great snow boarder.  He tried skiing one day a short time ago and things didn't work out as well for Josh.  He missed the hill but nailed the tree.  After Tim found out Josh was not hurt and ok, he laughed and told Josh he had the wrong idea.  He laughing said "your suppose to jump the hill Josh not the tree!"

  Josh just laughed and said, "ok Tim let's see you try   this!"  He knew Tim was a great skier but was not very good on a snow board.  When they were done teasing each other they headed down the hill to watch the ice skaters.  They knew Caroline would be there today.  She was the town's star skater and everyone hoped she'd make it to the Olympics someday.

Sure enough, there was Caroline practicing some of her spins.   She was wonderful!  Caroline practiced every day.  The more Caroline practiced the better and stronger she became. Issy, like Elizabeth, was new to ice skating so they were taking it pretty slow.  That's always a good idea when you are learning anything for the first time.

Izzy was having a few problems as most people do their first skates. time on ice Elizabeth was doing pretty good.  They were both trying very hard.  Considering that this was the first time either of them had been on skates, they were both doing very well.  At least both were still standing up and not sitting of their bottoms!  Caroline thought they were doing great!  She always loved seeing someone learning to skate.  She loved it so much herself, she hoped they would too.

Izzy wasn't doing quite as good as Elizabeth so Caroline decided to go over and give him some pointers.  Izzy was a good friend to everyone in that area and the whole crowd was cheering for him.  As Caroline ended her workout she did one of her famous final moves and the crowd went wild with applause!  She was such a beautiful skater.

Elizabeth dreamed of someday being as good as Caroline. Caroline told her all she needed to do was just keep practicing and never give up!  She told Elizabeth she had already learned to do circles in just one day.  Caroline said that was really wonderful and probably meant Elizabeth would be a great skater one day!  Issy decide to do the thing he knew how to do best!  Throw a Bar-B-Que for the whole group.  Issy was known far and wide as the best Bar-B-Que chief around.

He made some hungry tummies feel VERY good that day.  Elizabeth     had brought a gift for Puder Bear.  Puder had always dreamed of sitting on a beach and watching the warm ocean waters.  This of course would never happen, since Puder was a Polar Bear.  They have to stay where it is cold or they would get sick.  Even in the Zoo, they keep huge blocks of ice for them to lay on and ice cold water.  Puder loved that ball though, he would keep it forever and always think of Elizabeth.

The last week Elizabeth was there, Caroline performed an   ice show.  She did all kinds of wonderful jumps and spins.  Elizabeth was so happy she was there that week so she could see the show.  She was simply amazed at the beautiful moves Caroline could do.  She promised herself she would go home and practice very hard.

Toward the end of the show Caroline glided over the ice     on just one leg.  She made it look so easy.  Of course Elizabeth knew all to well how hard it really was.  She had brought a pillow to sit on because of her falls trying to learn that week.  Elizabeth wasn't going to give up though.  Caroline had made it happen for herself and so could Elizabeth!  The crowd threw roses after roses.  Caroline had a whole bouquet when it was over!

Caroline kept practicing and it looked like she would make it to the Olympics.  As Elizabeth grew up she kept practicing.  She entered and won many skating contests.  Her room was filling up with beautiful trophies.  Her dad made a special shelf just to set them all on.  Elizabeth's hard work was paying off.  Who knows, maybe we'll see Elizabeth at the Olympics one day!

WITH HARD WORK AND PRACTICE THERE IS ALMOST NOTHING WE CAN'T DO!!