After a restful holiday (we hope), maybe we’re all ready for return to real life, school, and Girl Scouts.  We had planned to have Julia Kitchings coming to help us work on the Emergency Preparedness IPP, but she has had to move our date back to the February meeting (February 9).  Even so, we have several things that we need to do. 

• We need to get ready to go to Nicholas House on January 15.

• We need to plan our camping trip in February

• It seems that we need a sewing session, so please bring your badge sash or vest, and Pat will have diagrams, needles, and thread to get all those recognitions sewed on.

• We may be able to do some of the other work on the Emergency Preparedness IPP.

Maria, Laura, Callie, and Crystal have been working hard on the paperwork side of the Gold Award, which is easily the hardest part.  Thanks to her own hard work and some excellent help from Mrs. Gargiullo, Crystal has completed her Photography IPP, her Textile Arts IPP, and her Studio 2B Don’t Sweat It book.  Crystal and Callie both finished up that last chart for the Horse Sense IPP, and Crystal, Callie, and Laura have all finished the paperwork for the IPP’s and Studio 2B books.  Whew!  

Now there’s work to be done on the Leadership Logs and Career Exploration pins, and all three girls should be ready to face the Senior Girl Scout Challenge.  By the end of summer, or maybe sooner than that, they should be ready to turn in their project application.  Excellent!

Meanwhile Maria is trying to complete the Senior Girl Scout Challenge and her project application by the end of January – or maybe mid-February.  Keep writing, Maria!

We think that we will be camping February 23-25 at Mariner’s Lodge in Camp Pine Acres.  Mariner’s Lodge is very much like Falcon’s Roost at Scout Haven, one of our old favorite spots.  It is a winterized cabin with a partial kitchen (that means we have to bring our own pots and pans) and mattresses on the floor instead of bunks.  Still we think that all the plumbing is indoors with us and not up a hill somewhere else.  Oh joy!