Jingle Bell's Back in Town!

Yes, he's back!  This morning was like Christmas morning in a way.  We heard Madison's footsteps loudly tromping down the hall, following a trail of candy canes.  They led her down the stairs, and yes, right to Jingle Bell!  He was down there, riding upon a new reindeer friend that we'll apparently be seeing a lot of in the coming days.  What a way to start December, with a bit of magic under the Christmas tree!

Today was rainy.  Go figure.  Lots of rain, and flooding too.  Sound familiar?  This is one of those seasons where we really celebrate those dry and sunny days.  We had piano class once again this afternoon, where Madison is learning a few classical pieces that will sound impressive when she gets them mastered.  That's practice the next few weeks.  We had a bit of work to do when getting home - we're working on Madison's big first project for school, a report on Paul Revere.  There's a lot of research going on - last week, Madison got a bunch of books from the local library, plus movies, plus even some comic books.  This will be an ongoing event this week, our prepping for the big presentation in the class - we'll put the finished project here, of course.  She knows so much about Paul Revere and William Dawes right now, about that fateful night and the midnight ride.  And also about the Boston Tea Party.  It's great watching her learn and absorb so much!

Afterwards, Mommy, Daddy and Madison all gathered together for a board game:  the DVD Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Game!  This is one of those games that rewards you with chips for answering the right questions after DVD clips, or playing games on the DVD.  The first round Madison won easily.  Madison went first and was able to move to the appropriate squares with no problem, and no threat from the Abominable Snowman.  She rolled so well each time that she literally finished the game in four moves.  I know this because Daddy rolled three times, each time rolling a one.  So for the entire game, Daddy moved a total of three spaces, landing on nothing.  This was probably not what the designers of this game envisioned.  It was still fun though.  We played another round, and everyone got to interact with the DVD, and in the end, nobody won:  Bumbles did, by collecting the misfit toys first.

We went to bed early tonight, reading from a new book, "Tom Sawyer."  Daddy found a couple classics that are abridged, and he'll be reading these to Madison the next few weeks, starting with both "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn."  It'll be great for Madison to know those stories, and "Swiss Family Robinson" as well.  These are all great books in preparation for the next trip to the Magic Kingdom, right?

Anyway, after reading from the devotional, it was time for bed.  Mommy and Daddy watched an unexpected episode of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," and were off to bed soon after themselves, wondering just what that elf would do next?