While people don't officially start counting down to Christmas until the first of December, because there were more than three times the people who were attending the Animalia Christmas Exposition than there were last year preparations had to be started early. Especially since November 30 introduced itself to Lyre and Animalia with the first snow of the season. There were a lot of things done that day as well, some good and some not as good.
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While the official trial of Jack and Mary Piper was on that day, a lot of the press was kept away from the courthouse where it happened. This was mainly due to the fact that a lot of the things that would be discussed in the courtroom was either classified Top Secret or fell into "squick" territory. Fortunately, both Mary and Jack were found by the jury to be innocent by reason of insanity, and were sentenced to a kind of "community service" by providing the money made by their first season of "Cheaper by the Dozens" to their community. One of the key witnesses for this trial was Dr. Gert Addams, as it was with the first trial, who explained how and why their semi-feral states made them commit the crimes they were accused of.
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Apart from that, there was a lot of fun being planned. Aside from the things that made the first ACE a lot of fun, there were several new additions. There was a snow sculpture contest, where instead of creating "mere" snowmen, there was a competition to create artwork featuring not just snowmen, but also snow sculptures. There was also a showcase of ice sculpture by several artists, which showed the many different ways that ice could be shaped.
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The "re-ignition" of the Great Snow War was also looked forward to by many people, but there was also several additions that would make it more interesting. For example, there were several machines made by the Nevada Institute of Technology designed to launch large snowballs in imitation of the artillery rounds used in WWI. Some of these were trebuchets, while others were air cannons. Another addition was hand-cranked devices that launched multiple small snowballs in rapid succession by using flywheels, which were designed to be the machine guns that were used at the time.
Another thing that was done was a theater dramatization of the events that lead to the start of WWI. While "the spark that fired the guns of August" would be a kind of live reenactment, but instead of a real assassination, the assassination victim would instead get beaned by a snowball, which would result in an old-fashioned "declaration of war" by the victim.
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Another thing that was added to the celebrations was a cooking competition of various winter foods. They not only had to follow the theme of winter, but also fall into several categories, such as either "hot food for cold days" or "Christmastime".
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While Polly was certainly looking forward to playing in the snow, Jeremy was just glad that she accepted him as well as not be able to crush his bones with a big hug. It was also discovered that while Dinosaurs, and thereby Dinotopians, could handle winter better than most reptile Animalians, they still required some time in the Brumation House before heading out.
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While there were many things to be done before the Animalia Christmas Exposition, it was shaping up to be even bigger than last year. For many people in Animalia, this was a good thing.