Krampi

Madison's clue today suggested some place a little smellier here, and yes, the garbage cans in the garage were her destination this morning, and she had to get there quickly before those walls closed in on our heroes!

Han appears to be attempting to hold the walls of the trash compactor there with a candy cane.  It was cooler in the garage, but Madison got out there and got her new LEGO creation from the advent calendar.  Her other morning rituals for December are in place now too, including pulling a link off the wall to indicate how many days are left until Christmas.  Not long now!  We've got some work to do before that big day, but I think we can pull it off!

Today was International Ninja Day, which was reason enough for us to do Ninja races at the elementary school when we did our weekly visit.  Next week will be our last visit of the year for the school year, and we'll do all kinds of Christmas things at that point.  Buy why not celebrate International Ninja Day with a fun little game segment?

Not that we were disregarding Christmas today.  In fact, its was quite a festive day.  We got wreaths together for the house with new ribbons, and tonight we spent a little time watching the ceremony for the National Tree, where the official Christmas tree at the White House was lit up, along with the musicians and celebrations.  Mommy and Daddy were doing a bit of work today, and because tomorrow is St. Nicholas Day, we had on in the background the Krampuslauf, which is basically nearly an hour-long parade of more than one Krampus.  For those of you not familiar with Krampus, here's the scoop:  Krampus is a monster that visits your house on this night, and if you've been naughty all year, he grabs you and puts you in his little washtub, and takes you off to a place for eternal punishment.  Sounds festive, right?  Instead of seeing Santa this time of year, the people in the Alpine areas love seeing a bunch of Krampuses... or is that Krampi?  Sure, we'll go with that.  There were hundreds of Krampi marauding the streets, and it was absolutely surreal.

As mentioned earlier, tomorrow is St. Nicholas Day.  We're not worried about Krampus coming here, of course.  But Madison did want to be prepared for St. Nicholas Day, so she got a pair of boots out by the fireplace without any of us reminding her.  She's anxious to see these boots filled with candy tomorrow, because she knows she's been good!

Tonight, she was at taekwondo, and afterwards, she was studying for her math test tomorrow.  This morning we got there early to school so she could help out with Toys for Tots and donations.  She's doing well - but she's certainly busy lately.  We read tonight, and we prayed too.  It was a fun day, and our boots are ready at the fireplace.  It's time to head to sleep.