Counting Down...

The days are swiftly going by.  Each day a new sentence to the Christmas story is read from the advent calendar, and a chocolate beneath each number consumed.  There's snow on the ground, the air is bitter cold,  I've had two snow days off of school, Beatrice has had two early dismissals, the tree is up, cards are mostly all written, presents wrapped,  "Jingle Bells" is being rehearsed, and shopping just about complete.  (In between all that, there were two dental visits resulting in a brand new root canal, and she was an incredible trooper, but I won't dwell on that part of our holiday season.)Beatrice is so excited and, depending on the moment, talks about "Mama's birthday,"  "Jesus's birthday," or "Santa coming" as the most important facet of December 25th.  She opted not to visit Santa's helper and just wanted to send a letter instead.

It specified wishes for four gifts:  Goldieblox and the Spinning Machine game/book, a cleaning trolley and new bath toys that she saw in a catalog about a month ago, and a Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse fashion vending machine.  Only Santa could come through on a pipedream like that last one!

Here's the view inside the house these days:

We've had three batches of snow and it's been cold enough so none has melted.  Today I finally got the camera out to catch this snow bunny:

Bea can eat her weight in December snow:

The building of Fort Farrows:

Her ability to actually be helpful with regards to snow removal has really increased:

Know why this one's blurry?  She was chucking a hunk of ice right at me!!!!

Last night, to celebrate the fact that she became a member of the "100 club" (requirement: being able to count to 100 to a teacher), we went to this lights display:

Beatrice also earned a paint set from her teacher for her accomplishment, and she and Daddy set about creating some masterpieces this afternoon. I love how she's squatting on her toes while she paints:

and this one (in which she's splattering paint like she's Jackson Pollock on a piece she titled "Outer Space") shows a lot about our daily life this month with the wall calendar being filled in with squares from the advent calendar, and our word wall on the kitchen door. Bea can read 30+ words these days and she's so excited when we move a word from the right hand "still working on it" side to the blue "I KNOW IT" columns. One of these days I'll get it together enough to videotape her reading: