Christmas Countdown!

While organizing my thoughts to write this I realized that while I orient my week Sunday to Sunday, I generally write about them from the middle of the week, which kind of throws off my "what has happened this past week" thoughts.  I suppose that will have to do for 2012 though as I do not see myself being more disciplined to write on Sunday evenings.  I may put that on my possible New Year's resolutions list.  Maybe.
So the Bieber Creeper has been busy.  He only forgot to move one morning, and instead miraculously moved while the girls were watching TV.  (Right in front of them I might add, without them noticing)  I must say it takes some imagination, even with the oodles of pinterest pictures of Elf on the Shelf ideas, to find something interesting for Bieber to do each night.  We got lazy one night and decided that he must have been climbing the cabinets for some reason unknown to us and fell, getting hung on the door in the process.  Most of the other nights, his movements are a little more purposeful.  I did forget to take a picture the morning he hid in the lampshade with a sock on his head.  Oh, well.  We've got him rolling the tree, reading "Everyone Poops" to the manger characters, etc.  I'll give myself koodos that he even got cookie icing smeared on his mouth after he stole one of Lyla's Christmas cookies for a late-night snack.  I don't think the girls think this is all as funny as Jason and I do, but I have noticed that they do look for him each morning.  Of course Lyla is the funniest about it all, but I think Gwyn and Celee are just playing "too cool for Sunday school."  We all know they enjoy it too.

 We got to play outside a lot last week because the weather was super nice.  We played at the park with some new friends.  We discovered a fox hole.  The fox that Gwyn and Celee saw outside our window was confirmed by the maintenance man and the discovery of his den.

 We went down to the Monument Lighting Festival in the city on Wednesday night.  The Walter's Art Museum had cider and cookies and caroling for everyone and then after the monument was lit up, there was a fireworks show.  We all had a super fun time and next year we plan to go down and enjoy the music in the park ahead of the show as well.

This weekend was Dollar Days in Baltimore, which meant that most of the museums and attractions in the city were $1 on Saturday and Sunday.  So Saturday morning we went down to the Inner Harbor to see the historical ships.  We got to explore the USS Constellation, a naval sloop that not only fought slave traders but also fought the Confederacy during the Civil War.  I must say that in addition to the coolness of being aboard an amazing ship like that, it's interesting to see Civil War history from the North side of the war.  Growing up as you can imagine, I usually got the other side.

We also got to explore the USS Torsk, a diesel submarine that fought in WWII, which had two submariners on board who told us their stories and answered lots of our questions.   The girls all agreed that their bunk room has a lot more room than where 80 guys slept aboard the Torsk.  And we bathe every few days as opposed to weeks on end, so I can imagine that the girls' room smells better.

 We also got to go up into the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse.  This lighthouse used to occupy the shallows at the bend in the Chesapeake where ships would turn to enter Baltimore's harbor.  After electricity made the gas lamp obsolete the lighthouse was moved into the Inner Harbor to preserve it for history.  Because the gas lamp had to be checked on every few hours and the lighthouse was 6 mi. out from land, people lived in this lighthouse.  Once a family with 4 children lived there!

Sunday we went to the National Aquarium.  It is a very nice aquarium.  They have all the usual stuff aquariums have but it was all very nicely done and the dolphin exhibit is very large.  Lyla even got picked to be a dolphin during the dolphin talk.  She got to go with one of the trainers and pretend to be a dolphin who was rewarded with "strawberries."  Gwyn and Celee were a little miffed when the trainer asked Lyla ahead of time if she'd like to be part of the show.  But after they saw that Lyla got to be "trained," they were happier that they didn't get picked as well.  Lyla on the other hand loved it because she got picked out of the hundreds of other kids that were there.

 So we all had a super fun week and we are all super excited about Christmas coming up so soon.  The girls have been more into Advent this year than usual.  Of course they love the little chocolate Advent calendar they get to open each morning, but they've been excited about lighting the candles each night at dinner and who gets to do the readings on Sundays. I think that they get it that what we're waiting for isn't presents.  The presents will be there and that's definitely a bonus to be thankful for, but it's not the end-all. Gwyn even wrote a report on what Advent means without a fuss.  We've all been having fun making some special gifts for people.  Gwyn even remarked to me that the best thing about giving someone a gift if their face when they open it.  I'm so happy that our Christmas is starting off simple and purposeful this year.  Of course they have things they want to receive for Christmas, but it seems like this year - even to the girls - Christmas means more than that.