Well, I hope you're all enjoying these because there's plenty more where that came from. Here's the next one for your reading pleasure.

December 5th: Toy Drive

Apart from the snow outside and the Christmas decorations everywhere, it was a typical morning in Radiator Springs. All was calm. All was bright.

Red was leafing through the paper as everyone enjoyed their breakfast. The fire truck's eyes widened as he read a particular article.

"What is it?" Doc wanted to know.

Red showed him the newspaper and jabbed at a section with his tyre.

"The toy drive?" Doc asked, to which the fire truck nodded.

Doc put on his reading glasses and read the article. "The orphanage in Velo City is lookin' for donations of toys and books. They can be second-hand as long as they are in good condition."

"You wanna organise a toy drive?" Lizzie asked Red. "You've always been very successful with those."

In the past, back when the town had been on the map, Red had organised toy drives every year around Christmastime. Like Lizzie said, they were always very successful.

Red nodded enthusiastically.

"With all the customers coming through, I'm sure we'll have plenty of donations!" Sally declared optimistically.

Luigi nodded in agreement, "I keep thinking how it could very easily have been Fudge in one of of those orphanages. I think we should help children who are not as fortunate as my little girl."

Fudge looked up from her plate of waffles. "Kids who don't have families?"

It was hard for little Fudge to accept what had happened with her mother. It hurt her to think that the woman who gave her life and was supposed to always love her and take care of her had just dumped her at the very first chance she got. Still, even she knew, considering the circumstances, she was insanely lucky. She had never spent time in an orphanage, or been bounced around from foster home to foster home. She'd just been in foster care for five months before being adopted by her foster family. Not only that, but a pretty loving and doting family, as well.

So, the idea of not having a family hit home for Fudge much more than it would for a lot of other kids her age.

Guido smiled and spoke in Italian. Luigi translated.

"That is right, Guido! We have a whole box of toys that Fudge has never really used. I think most of those will be in good enough condition."

Sally smiled. "My parents still send me some of my old book and toys. I could donate some of them."

"We've still got some of the Donovans' old stuff, right?" Fillmore asked.

"I'm not sure how good that stuff would be, though", Ramone mused. "They had a lot of kids and most of the stuff was used by all of them."

"Maybe not the toys", Sarge acknowledged, "but definitely the books."

"Well, I don't think I've got any toys, but I could buy some", Lightning offered.

"Yeah!" everyone agreed, glad that the race car was caring for others. He had come a long way in the few short months he'd been living in Radiator Springs.

"Looks like our December's gonna get much busier", Flo remarked. "Working in our stores, gettin' ready for the holidays, organising this toy drive... Think we can do it?"

Lightning grinned. "We're Radiator Springs. We can do anything."

This one does get referenced a couple of times throughout the rest of the story.

Thanks to the Cars book, Mater Saves Christmas, I headcanon that Red runs a toy drive every December.

Please review! :)