Journal 12/16

• said rosary


• played piano. Becky has this really simple Christmas songbook. Just at my level of notereading! Anyway, I enjoyed myself. I think I'm going to try to play piano more.


• Read from Christmas and the Saints - read about St. Patrick and St. Brigid


• Read a very simple Step into Reading book about Pompeii. We are going into town to see the Pompeii exhibit today.


• Hannah is not feeling well, need to make an appointment for her.


• Becky and Sean are still deep into their Ron Stevenson game. Ron Stevenson (you always have to say both names) is their constant companion and does everything with them.


• Got Becky to practice her piano a little. She is going through a very resistant phase


• Went to the Pompeii exhibit at National Gallery. Ate lunch in the nice cafeteria. Becky loved the exhibit. They had a children's guide booklet which made it like a scavenger hunt which she enjoyed thoroughly. Josh and Will kind of just quietly looked around. They seemed to enjoy it. Sean was bored and couldn't wait to go home. Something about museums just makes Sean droopy from the minute we enter them. First he was talking about a video game. I tried to get him to read one of the placards. He did ask me what A.D. and B.C. meant. I explained it and immediately he had to tell me a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip that had B.C. meaning Before Calvin. We saw a bust of Homer which of course immediately reminded him of Homer Simpson. I reminded him that we just finished reading Black Ships Before Troy which is a retelling of the Illiad by Homer. We also saw lots of statues and statuettes of gods and goddesses which was cool, since we've been reading so much Greek mythology. There was a nice short movie which we caught most of and it talked about how much Greek culture influenced Roman culture. In spite of everything, I think Sean found the whole exploding volcano/poisonous gas/burning ashes thing pretty cool.


• After that we shopped in the gallery shop. I got books for the kids which I tried not to let them see (tho Josh picked out his own; one on Escher who he is still fascinated with; I gave him an Escher calendar last Christmas because he was so taken with the artist.) Becky bought everybody a little gift from the store; so her shopping is over with!


• Took Will to band practice. Now Sean and Becky and playing their Ron Stevenson game and I think Josh is reading more Redwall.


• Hannah felt better and went out with friends (of course, she's never really too sick to not hang out with friends!) She just called. Her friend's little sister is in a concert tonight so she is going to that. I told her to come home directly after that.