When you marry a man who has a degree in zoology but works in sales, there are certain things that you come to expect. He will try to bring home every stray animal he finds (the answer is still NO, Mr. Husband). He will spend entirely too much time looking at various critters at the zoo. And, he will find odd places to go visit odd animals.

Thus, our annual trip to Meder's. There may be other places in town that let you pet reindeer, but Meder's is the only place that lets you pet (rein)deer.

Of course, Meder's claims they are reindeer. Uh-huh, and Santa lives in the storage room in my basement. They are (rein)deer.

This tradition has been going on for several years and very much so predates Alexis. While I find the whole thing a little icky (apparently I paid a little too much attention to PETA for that ten minutes in high school before I realized they were nuts), I go along with it because there are trees there. Lots of trees.

Trees make me happy.

This was the first year that Alexis really understood the Christmas extravaganza at Meder's. It was absolutely no surprise that we learned that trees make her happy, too.

Sign that she is indeed my kid #125: She found the tree covered in creepy dolls. I was very proud.

Sign that she is indeed Mr. Husband's kid #526: She love, love, love, loved feeding the (rein)deer.

If photos could make sound (yeah, I know that is called video--roll with me here), the sound you would hear from that photograph would be pure joy. Alexis giggled and laughed, grinned from ear-to-ear, and gleefully fed that (rein)deer over and over and over. "It tickles!" she would exclaim in between chuckles.

Last night as I was making cookies, Alexis remembered the a little something that she had received in her gift from our daycare. Every year the owner puts together baggies full of "reindeer food." It's nothing more than oatmeal and glitter, but the little note attached to the bag makes it sound like it's a gourmet treat concocted by the elves themselves. Alexis frantically looked around the kitchen in search of her bag of reindeer food. Once she found it, she turned to me with a giant grin and said, "OK, let's go feed the reindeer again!"

I don't know if (rein)deer eat glitter, but I can guarantee I don't plan to stick around and see how that turns out.