Georgia Aquarium

The final Christmas adventure with my family was a trip to the Georgia Aquarium.  It was huge and amazing!  We wish we could have had more time to explore, but we made the best with the time we had.  

The girls loved the tunnels under the penguin habitat that had pop-up windows in the middle of the habitat:

Elsa wished she could have a real mermaid fin (of course) for the coral reef:

The most impressive visit was the extra large, 6.3 million gallon, Ocean Voyager tank.  Here we all are in the tunnel (Joel, Beatrice, Naomi, Elsa, and my father):

and Nora and my mother, with one of the four whale sharks overhead (the largest known fish, averaging around 25 feet long):

The girls really liked the bubble windows that curved into the tank.

"Oh no, Nora fell in!  Look out for that giant grouper!"

I thought she might actually get spooked by the huge fish that had swum up behind her, but she didn't seem to mind at all, and just said "Hi fishy!"

There was also one super large gallery viewing window of the entire tank.  That's Elsa's arm raised up at the bottom:

We hung around for the feeding time for the whale sharks - watching the tank was rather mesmerizing after a while.

Whale sharks eat tiny zooplankton and tiny fish.  They scoop them up with their large mouths and filter the food through a very small throat opening, so it looked like they became vacuum cleaners sucking in the water when the food was distributed.

It was a pretty amazing way to end the year.

A few more photos from Christmas

A few last orphaned photos that a post before I finish up the Christmas season - 

My parents love contra dancing and took us to two dance events over Christmas.  We all had fun dancing, and it was sweet to see mom and dad showing us what they have been learning for the last few years.  (Here they are waltzing during the break.)

And of course Beatrice was a doll.  She can army crawl and scoot around now so that kept us a bit busier watching her, and she's just as happy as ever.

Fairies at Opa's castle

My father's castle is really coming along.  He's waiting on paperwork before he can start on the main castle itself, but the multi-story wall and the property is coming together.  The latest Google Earth update got a nice arial photo too (you can see where he's started excavating for the main castle/house in the middle of the walled area).  This is the main entrance/driveway gate:

And this is the view looking northeast from the highest turret on the wall:

Some fairies received new wings for Christmas, and what better place to try them out than at a castle surrounded by woods?! (Beatrice caught a ride with my sister's wings...)

At the end the fairies decided that they did not like humans interrupting their play so they tried to chase us away.  Or at least they tried to chase Daddy away...

Giving and Receiving

It was a delight for me to see Nora and Elsa really enjoy the "giving" part of Christmas this year.  They both started talking to me about what they wanted to give each family member back in early November!  I was impressed with how much thought they put into some of their gifts.  For example, Elsa made each of the Dunham guys a writing pen with a football, golfball, or whatever sport they are interested in glued on top.  For Opa, Elsa made a pen with an owl on top with a decorated castle as a pen holder.  (Elsa's looking at this photo as I try to type and said with a huge smile "Oh, he just really loved it!")

She and Nora pooled a bit of their money to buy Daddy a Princess Leia Lego figurine (that's what they wanted to get him!)

Nora gave Oma the birdhouse she decorated.

Nora wanted to give Elsa a "real" mermaid tail for dress-up, so I had to divulge that we were getting that for her already, so she wanted to turn Elsa's little threadbare Melissa and Doug doll into a mermaid instead.  I did most of the sewing, but she carefully told me where to put each particular sequin :)

Elsa loved both the doll and her "real" mermaid fin.  She spent a good part of the day sliding herself around the floor!

I just think this picture is really funny!

My father remembered from her birthday that Nora's favorite birthday present every year was her blanket, so he stuffed in quickly in a Christmas bag that morning.  She started to wear out part-way through opening presents but quickly revived when her next gift held her favorite possession!

Father Christmas

For Christmas we drove to my parents' home in north Georgia.  It's so nice to be able to drive to our families now!  My sister came down from Maine and we had a lovely time together.  

My mother loved having us all there, and she planned a special evening for Christmas Eve.  My father was reading us about the history behind "Father Christmas" when there was a knock on the door!

"Father Christmas" brought little presents of nuts and candy and chocolates, and the girls eagerly helped him distribute the gifts.  (And note that Elsa is again enjoying a "Fancy Nancy holiday hair-do"!)

He brought a vintage storybook with him about a robin whose tree is cut down for Christmas, and when he finds is tree in the church he learns about the true Christmas story.

 Joel read the story to us while Beatrice tried to figure out who she was sitting with!

At the end "Father Christmas" helped the girls hang up the stockings that my grandmother has made for us over the years.

My parents' friend had a fun time dressing up for us all, and we all had a great time.

We even managed to get a nice picture of our little family!

Christmas tree climbing

A holiday with my family would not be complete without an adventure of some sort.  This year my mom arranged for us to all have a family tree-climbing ropes course with a friend of hers that teaches the sport as a business (Dancing With Trees).  The instructor, Genevieve, accommodated ages four and up, so even Nora got to participate!

We used a double rope technique with friction knots.  The method involves a foot loop and a friction knot - when you stand up in the foot loop you take the weight off the main friction knot that holds your harness.  You then can slide the main friction knot up your rope.  Then when you sit back in the harness you are higher up, and you can then bring up the foot loop to your new position and do it again.  It is a great full body work-out!  One nice feature of the system is that you get to stop and rest and just hang or swing in your harness whenever you want.  

Elsa had no hesitation at all.  She was actually the first one to get harnessed up.  She was so calm and listened so carefully to the instructor.

Soon she was off the ground and above our heads!

We told her she could stay there and swing, but she wanted to keep going!  She eventually made it to the top of her rope, about 30 feet up!

The children got to take a special friend up with them.  Elsa chose to take a little monkey from the instructor's collection.  We also all took up some bubbles.

Nora watched Elsa intently.  When we asked if she was ready she eagerly nodded yes and we stuffed the little squirrel she had chosen to climb with into her bag.

She made it to about shoulder height,

and then was very happy for us to take turns swinging her.  The rope was anchored so high in the tree that it made a terrific arc!

Elsa just kept going up and up.  She took lots of breaks to look around, watch us climb, and blow bubbles (she is up on the left in the picture below).  My sister Naomi had just made it to the first branch and Joel is just getting started in this picture:

Yea, mom!

Beatrice slept for a good while at the beginning.  She woke up just when all of us had fully left the ground, so the instructor, Genevieve, was on baby duty!  (Beatrice is the pink in the instructor's arms, down with Nora.)

And Elsa kept going!

In this photo Naomi is on the left and Elsa is on the right.

One advantage of family gatherings where there's more than one camera is that then there's some photos of me, too!

My some of the work for my M.S. degree involved tree climbing, so it was a bit strange at first to be doing it for fun and to not feel like I had to be checking the time or my lab equipment as I went!

Joel's and Naomi's ropes were anchored the highest in the tree.  This is their victory photo near the top.

Here they are at their summit.  The black arrow is where Elsa reached.  (Can you tell how proud I am of her?  After I got down I realized just how high she had gone and it did catch my breath for a moment!)