Christmas Musical
On Sunday instead of normal services, our church presented this year's Christmas musical, Lessons from Christmas Past, which featured Scrooge several years after The Christmas Carol. The show immediately captured their attention when the opening number, "Little Drummer Boy," included a long snare drum solo. The production involved a huge choir, Victorian era costumes, a small orchestra and a fake snowfall. Monkey and Bug were mostly into the orchestra, so I wish we'd taken front row seats, so they could see them better. However, Bug did get an up close look at the trombone afterwards--her request as soon as show ended. Monkey fell asleep partway into the show, so she was still attempting to return to reality at this point.

Projects
We made paper snowflakes! Monkey and Bug weren't quite ready to do this one on their own, so we had to deal with some frustration in trying to get the scissors to do what they wanted. However, they LOVED the finished product. They're big fans of practicing cutting in general, so I imagine we'll be making more of these over the course of the winter.

Next we made the angels telling the shepherds the about baby Jesus (construction paper/crayon shepherds, cotton ball sheep, angel printouts with glitter glue). After finishing this project Bug decided it would be improved by cutting it into separate smaller pieces for the shepherd, sheep, and angel.

Our final project for the week was supposed to be making Christmas cookies to take to a neighborhood Christmas party; however, Goose waking up with a stomach bug on Saturday morning foiled our plans. So, we made a handprint wreath instead (construction paper, contact paper, red ribbon).

Coloring
So, the good news is that Goose finally figured out what crayons are really for (coloring! not eating--who'd a thought?!). The bad news is that she discovered this on the wall of the study. She was SO excited about this discovery that I didn't have the heart to give her a real scolding about location. I just redirected her to a sheet of paper on the entourage's table, and Monkey and Bug chimed in with "only on paper!" This week when Monkey and Bug were working on the sherpherds and angels project, Goose insisted on being at the table with her own paper and crayons.

Exploring TV Shows
Since we've seen every single episode of Go, Diego, Go! multiple times, I decided it was time to branch out. In the past week and a half or so, we've sampled Busy World, Bob the Builder, Wonder Pets, Super Why, and The Smurfs (Monkey and Bug saw an ad for the recent movie that inspired this request, but we decided to go retro). We've also been watching How It's Made, a series of 10 minute documentaries on how they make things like kayaks, candles, jeans, violins, microchips, etc. Watching these has led to a lot more questions about where things come from (apples grow on trees), and how they're made. They're not actually intended for a preschool audience, but that doesn't seem to matter. Also, since it's been too dark and cold for Daddy, Monkey, and Bug to head to the playground for their weekly Daddy date, Daddy decided to start watching the old Star Trek episodes with them. I know that sounds weird, but we're sci-fi fans, the old shows are clean, and it's even been educational! That first episode led to discussions about outer space, space ships, and dream vs. reality.

This week the entourage and I also watched a movie of The Nutcracker performed by the Northwest Ballet. (We checked out a book from the library that they loved.) It was a huge hit. They were mesmerized by the Christmas party scene and fascinated by Drosselmeier, but once Clara and the Nutcracker arrived in the Land of Sweets (or in this interpretation designed by Maurice Sendak--exotic animals) Monkey and Bug were on their feet most of the time dancing along with ballerinas. The Chinese dancers were particularly popular; I was required to rewind several times, so they could watch that bit again. Sadly, Goose was down for her nap by this time.

Library Christmas Party!
Library day this week involved our attending the first annual recipe exchange party at our little branch library--quite the turnout with about 25 guests, mostly retirees and homeschoolers. (It was great! At one point I noticed the other end of our table was occupied by a group of teenagers and senior citizens talking and laughing about a library program they were all involved in. That's the kind of teenagers I want the entourage to be!) We got to try lots of really good food, and we came home with a collection of recipes, a new cookie cutter, and of course the usual armload of books:
The Friendly Beasts
The Nutcracker Ballet
The Three Little Pigs and Other Classic Tales for Children
Patterns
Pig and Elephant: Pig Goes to a Party
Finger Rhymes (kept from last week)
Za Za's Baby Brother (Ok, this book includes a line about how Za Za's mommy had a "big fat belly" because she was going to have a baby, so on Friday at the Y the entourage and I were standing the lobby when an overweight senior citizen walked by. Monkey announced: "Mommy, that lady's going to have a baby!" Me: "What?" Monkey: "She has a big fat belly like in the book! She's going to have a baby!" Oh dear. This little interchange led, of course, to a discussion about how babies come out and the logistics of a pelvic exam (the downside of having the entourage follow me everywhere). While I don't mind having that discussion, the venue could have been better.

And She's Off!
Goose is officially a walker, on Thursday evening she suddenly realized that walking (as opposed to cruising) wasn't just a game to play with Mommy and Daddy, it was actually a method of transportation. She can walk the entire length of a room if she wants to. There's no stopping her now!