It's Groundhog Day. Again.

This morning we woke up and once again got to patch into the live feed from Punxsutawney, watching the Inner Circle ascend Gobbler's Knob for the time honored tradition of meeting with Phil the groundhog to discuss the upcoming weather forecast.  It was pretty awesome seeing all the other folks there as well, a great crowd of witnesses on hand, some having been there since 3am apparently.  The temperature was quite chilly up there, but everyone was dressed up in many layers, some of them resembling a large, pudgy groundhog.  Which I have no problem with at all.  Before school, we watched the ceremony, and the words there on that scroll were clearly inspired by the movie "Groundhog Day."  The leader of the Inner Circle speaks fluent groundhog, although I'm not sure if that's something he's learned over time or if he needs to hold the sacred Groundhog Day stick in order to understand Phil.  No matter which, it was communicated clearly which scroll to read, and the prognosticator of prognosticators made the proclamation that six more weeks of winter were on the way.

Right after things wrapped up there, we tuned into a livestream of the ceremony down at Dauset Trails down in Jackson County, where General Beauregard the groundhog lives in his stately southern mansion.  He was already out and about by the time we tuned in, but we were there to find out the forecast for the south:  spring is on its way!  We could tell by today's weather that he wasn't going to be able to see his shadow.  The rain is on the way.

Maddie was off to school this morning, and we were off to work for a rather routine sort of day.  I mean, you wouldn't know it was a major holiday or anything, right?  Maddie got home from school in time for small groups, and I did this funny game for Camille where the girls had to first find out which hole the groundhog would emerge from.

Which is basically a one-in-three chance.  But beyond that there was a Bible question that kept popping up in between, over and over again, and yes, that's just like the movie.

This is always the standard Groundhog Day scripture - the question showed up time and again throughout this game, always the same answer.  Which was funny, but then there were these types of questions thrown in.

These are the ones where you study a picture, and then a question shows up afterwards that you have to try and remember the answer to.  The funny thing that the kids started to figure out a little later was that in every different picture, the answer to the question was always "A.  2."  I did this because today is February 2nd, but then the repeating of it was funny to watch the kids slowly pick up on, that the answer was always the same.

Tonight was an incredible episode of "Boba Fett," one filled with so much goodness.  If only the actual new sequel movies were this good!  We usually watch "Groundhog Day" on Groundhog Day, but the temptation to watch this latest episode was too great, and on top of that there were actual Winter Olympic events from Beijing going on, these before the Opening Ceremonies.  While Maddie was doing homework, we were actually watching an entire curling match between Australia and the United States, one that the Aussies had wrapped up, and it looked so obvious they were going to win.  I mean, it would take a big error for them to lose and guess what?  They lost.  It was a neck-and-neck battle.  And yes, I just wrote a couple sentences about watching a curling game.  That's what I love about this time every four years!

Of course we read from our book tonight, where the Kingdom Keepers are all in Sleeping Beauty Syndrome, and it's up to Amanda, Jess, and Mattie to protect them from the evil attempts of the Overtakers.  We said our prayers after that, and soon after that we were in bed.

Next year we'll have a new oven so we can make some Groundhog Day cookies once more.  Also, the day itself won't be so close to Chinese New Year so we'll have a bit more energy.  Plus, no Olympics or a new Boba Fett episode.  Lots going on today - all good!  It wasn't too bad a day if you were to choose one to do over and over again.