It's Groundhog Day... Again...

This morning we watched the livestream from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where the groundhog Phil came out of his home at Gobbler's Knob to let everyone know if it would be an early spring or six more weeks of winter.  This has become a tradition of ours before school.  We get to school just in time, actually.  Daddy had the livestream on early, and there was a concert of sorts playing early in the morning.  Thousands were out there to see the groundhog, and the Inner Circle, those guys in black suits with the top hats.  

Madison is listening to our groundhog above.  He was there, along with the stuffed groundhog we got from Build-a-Bear, and another smaller groundhog we have as well.  The three joined us in the kitchen as we heard the man translate from groundhogeese:  "Six more weeks of winter."  The crowd was upset about this.  A movement:  #notmygroundhog immediately arose, and protests ensued with riots and the destruction of much public property.  Or not.  But lately, why not?  

Anyway, down here in Georgia, we watched later a recording of the ceremony at the Yellow River Game Ranch, where the groundhog General Beauregard Lee comes out of his nice white house, and looks for his shadow as well.  There's a lot of noise and chanting there - Daddy actually went a couple times many years ago, and it was fun.  It's early and cold, but it's fun.  The groundhog Beau predicted an early spring for us here, as if we even had much of a winter to begin with.

We even saw Winter the dolphin get in on this a bit.  Winter and Hope could choose either a picture of flowers for spring, or a picture of Winter the dolphin.  And both of them chose the picture of Winter, signifying six more weeks of winter.  Of course, what does six more weeks of winter even mean in Florida?  

You can tell we get into this every year.  Daddy even had the puppet for his class today with the college kids.  Camille was the puppeteer, and we did a skit about the value of time, and not wasting a moment.  And how there's no shadow of turning with our Heavenly Father.  He's given us the immeasurable gift of salvation, and the precious gift of time.

When Madison got home, we were in board game mode for a tiny bit, this after piano practice.  We played a board game "Ripley's Believe it or Not," which gives out statements, some of them true and others not.  You believe it, or not, and depending on how true the statements, you advance around the world in the game.  We learned about David Rice Atchison again, meteorites in Connecticut, fish that stand on their heads and more.  Madison won this game by sheer luck, so as you can imagine there will be a rematch down the road.

But tonight, it was time to start out Tinkathon.  That's where we start watching all the "Tinkerbell" movies in consecutive order.  Naturally, we started with the one tonight called "Tinkerbell."  This movie came out the October after we first met Madison, just about three months into our relationship with her.  So it's a precious memory, really.  It's the first movie we could really sit down and watch with her without fear of something scary happening.  Madison didn't remember much from this one, mainly because she's usually watching the later Tinkerbell movies.  But this one tonight was a nice one to watch.  She enjoyed it, as did we all.  Tinkerbell is a lot more mellow than her "Peter Pan" counterpart in the other movies.  But that's okay - these are perfectly pleasant.

  

We finished the Rush Revere book tonight.  Cam won the office of school president, which wasn't so much a shock for us, because his rival Elizabeth was terribly mean.  It would be quite a bummer of an ending if she won, and you get the feeling that this statement would have really bothered the author outside of this book as well.  But any emotions or leanings towards one candidate or another in the national election are put aside rather well.  This book was there to educate about the office itself, and about the first three Presidents, and two First Ladies as well.  Madison enjoyed it, as did Mommy and Daddy.  It was very timely, educational, and fun to read.  Madison laughed out loud a few times, and of course her favorite character is Liberty.

Our Bible passage tonight dealt with Jacob, who has some questionable behaviors, but who are we to talk?  He'll find redemption soon enough.  And no doubt he'll endure some hardships soon enough as well.  But it all works out in the end, just as prophesied.  We'll get to that next week, I'm sure.

So it was off to bed on Groundhog Day.  We burrowed in, and were snoozing pretty quickly.  It was a great day, and sure, if we could do it again we would:  It was fun!