Christmas parties and bats

Gwyn and Lyla's Girl Scout troops had their annual Holiday Party.  The cadettes all were in charge of bringing a dish.  The Junior troop brought desserts.  The Brownies brought the drinks.  All the troops got to go through stations where they made various holiday crafts - they even made their own scented laundry soap.  The food was yummy, the girls were loud and happy, and a good time was had.

My December American Girl Doll program was Christmas-themed, as some of Felicity's books center around Christmas.  We talked about colonial Williamsburg and colonial Christmas decorations and games.  Then we made pomander balls with little oranges, cloves, and ribbons.  Many of the girls wanted to make two, so I guess they enjoyed it.  I love doing these programs!

It isn't exactly Christmas-y, but we went to a program to learn about bats.  The speaker was very entertaining and had lots of real bat specimens for the girls to see.  They were all stuffed, no live bats, but it was neat to see so many kinds of bats up close.  The speaker got sick after about 45 min and had to excuse himself.  We weren't sure if it was a joke or part of the program at first, because he used his story-telling voice to tell us he was sick.  But after a bit we all decided he was really sick and the program was done.  I'm glad we got to learn so much about different kinds of bats, what they eat, how they help humans, and diseases that they help reduce by eating mosquitoes.  I wish we could have seen the whole program, but I think he did a marvelous job considering he was sick.  Maybe we'll get to go see his program again.

Mr. and Mrs. Claus set up a house in front of the library, so the girls got to go talk to him a bit.  Gwyn of course, was too big.  But Celee still wanted to go, as did Lyla.  Santa was a little flumoxed that Celee asked for a live Husky.  I don't think he knew how to answer while not disappointing.  Lyla asked for a more do-able toy. I think she really only wanted to go talk to Santa in order to get the candy canes he was handing out.  She tends to fixate on free candy.  Celee so wants a larger-than-Tinkerbell dog of her own, but it's just not in the cards for anytime soon.  She'll have to settle for toys too.