Happy New Year! Well...Almost

First off, I have not disappeared, I have just been away from my computer and not able to blog lately. I plan on posting pictures of my many Christmas adventures later this week or early next week.

I have enjoyed the last week and a half as I have had time off of work and I've been spending that time with family. We've had a few get togethers, I've gotten to babysit a few times, we've cut down portions of trees and weeded most of the garden. I am the favorite aunt. I've also spent a couple restless nights as I realize that the end of my master degree program is coming to an end soon and I need to work on my portfolio. I also have a student teacher coming the week we get back to school so now I need to be able to schedule in who needs to teach the class and when for our many observations and assignments we both need to fulfill. It will all work out.

New Christmas Tradition!

I think we have discovered a new family tradition for Christmas! We all gathered at Kevin and Steven's apartment for a cousin cookie and cocoa party. While enjoying each others' company, we decided we should see if we could tape Pam to the ceiling.


We had a great time with the idea, found it very entertaining. Although, Pam's daughter was not amused one bit, in fact, I'm sure we could say she was terrified with the idea of her uncles taping her mother to the ceiling.


The rest of the evening was spent talking and munching and showing off Kevin and David's size. You may not believe me, but I actually am related to these two.





And then there's Lacey, every time I had my camera out and pointed it at something or someone, she would come running with her smile just waiting for me to take her picture.


(Did you like the decorations in the first picture? Kevin, Steven, and their roommate made the chimney and all of the decorations as part of a friendly competition with another apartment).

Merry Christmas!

One thing I've noticed this year is the lack of wishing people "Merry Christmas!" It's not even a "Happy Holidays!" it's nothing at all. I know people are trying to be more PC and all or maybe it's the economy bringing people down but come on people! I don't think it's too early to be saying such things, Christmas is 13 days away, in fact, I think that once Thanksgiving is over, saying, "Merry Christmas!" is completely fair game. If the stores can start Christmas in September, I think we can start saying "Merry Christmas!" right after Thanksgiving, so step up!

Merry Christmas!

Tagged again

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both, it depends on who it's for and what the gift is. Growing up for birthdays it was usually a plastic shopping bag with the handles tied into a bow...but not for Christmas.
2. Real tree or artificial tree? Artificial
3. When do you put up your tree? growing up it was the day after Diane's birthday so Dec. 6th, but now I try to put it up the weekend after Thanksgiving. I haven't put it up this year though and probably won't as my roommate still has some of her stuff in my living room and I can't handle adding any more to it.
4. When do you take the tree down? As soon as I get around to it...usually after I get back from my parents' house and before Valentine's Day.
5. Do you like eggnog? Not really.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I don't remember, I just enjoyed being with family and all of the Christmas traditions. probably one of my ewoks though.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My brother in law
I have no idea what happened to #8
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, that's not out either, I can't get to my Christmas decorations in my storage closet because of all of my roommate's stuff.
10. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Mail--it's nice to be able to actually get something
11. Favorite Christmas movie? Hmmm...probably White Christmas or something I can sing along to. No, wait! The claymation Santa Claus is Coming to Town or the one with the snow miser and heat miser
12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Always looking for good gift ideas, but I'm in full Christmas gift mode in October or November.
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nothing in particular stands out but probably something a student has given me, I do have over 40 candles from presents from students.
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Homemade candy. Especially the English Toffee and fudge. Peppermint ice cream is also a favorite.
15. Lights on the tree? Depends on what ornaments I have to go with it. i like multi-colored for all of the traditional and homey ornaments but my tree here has white lights (because that's what I own from a previous excursion with prior roommates) and simple white and red ornaments.
16. Favorite Christmas song? Most people don't know my favorite one, since it is a Primary song (a youth song from my church) it's called, "Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus." My favorite MAINSTREAM song is "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" by Harry Connick Jr.
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I have to travel to get home for Christmas.
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes
19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel, but I don't have one
20. Do you open Presents Christmas eve or Christmas day? Christmas Day unless it's from Laura, then I open it when I get it in the mail.
21. The most annoying thing about this time of year? Traveling in bad weather, traffic at the stores, the wrong kind of Christmas spirit
22. Favorite ornament theme and color? I don't like themed trees, it seems too formal. Christmas is more of a enjoy your family, loved ones, and life holiday. A formal tree makes everything too stiff and rigid, not as relaxed as it should be.
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Christmas Eve has always been rolls and lunch meats. Christmas dinner is usually a good spread of things brought by everyone.
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? A chocolate lab ;)
25. Favorite Christmas tradition? My all time favorite is one done with the extended family. We get together on Christmas Eve for dinner, a small show for anyone who would like to "perform" their musical talents, singing carols, playing the pipes with nails, watching old slides of Christmases of old, and the chocolate box (we have a box of See's chocolates and everyone gets a piece going from oldest to youngest, everyone knows their place in line and has a favorite piece. The first question asked when someone starts dating someone is how old they are so they all know where he/she fits in the chocolate line).

As far as tagging others is concerned... If you'd like to do it, go for it

Christmas 2006--All of the single cousins attending

School

School has been going well the last few weeks. The computers are up and running, our PowerPoint presentations are finally done (as of today), and Christmas Break is coming up fast.

One of the joys I have at school is that I am directly involved with the student council at our school. With the holiday season, we have been working on a couple of service projects. In November, we sponsored a can food drive at the school and had a mountain of items donated by the students and their families. The project we are currently working on is called "Warm the Soles." This charity is done by the local credit union to raise money to buy shoes for needy kids in the area. We choose to work through this charity as it directly helps students at our schools and surrounding neighborhoods. This is the second year we've done Warm the Soles and it ends up warming your heart as well. Each classroom is given a jar to collect spare change and monetary donations, at the end of the week, the student council will gather all of the coins, wrap and count them. Last year, we raised over $500. We have given the school the goal to beat last year's amount. This morning, we decided to give a little more and told the school that there would be a collection jar at our student store and whatever was donated this morning, the student council would match. You wouldn't think that an elementary school would donate so much money, but within a 15 minute period, $51.04 was put in our jar (we had to get a bigger jar at one point) so after our matching money, we had $102.08 added to our bucket of coins. I am so impressed at the giving hearts the students at our school have. Each year I am at a school that works with such a cause, I challenge my own class to be able to raise enough money as a class to buy at least one pair of shoes (around $20) which is about 75 cents per student (we're working on ratios this week), I think it helps put things in perspective in that every little bit helps and that everyone can make a difference. I have had students put in a few dollars and others a few cents, but the one that has been the biggest donation is the morning I mentioned that we still need to put money in our can and the only student that jumped up to do so in my class was one of the students from our school who was identified as a student who could use one of the pairs of shoes from Warm the Soles. We've been dumping the class cans every once in awhile into a 5-gallon bucket, yesterday we had 2 1/2 to 3 inches in the bucket. We're going to hold a "guess how much" for the school on Monday or Tuesday and then count it all up after school on Tuesday, it should be fun.

California

I went home last week. I took a few days off of school and just went home because I could. I had a few personal days that I needed to use or else I would lose them and plane tickets were cheap, so I flew home on a Wednesday night, hung out with my family, helped Mom with the Nativity Festival, went shopping with my sister, babysat my nieces and nephew, and then flew back the next Monday. My students were glad to have me back so Tuesday was very pleasant at work (not so much today, so I threatened to leave again and have a sub teach, they didn't like that very much).

My niece seems to think that smiling involves closing one eye (it might have something to do with her mother being a photographer and closing one eye behind the camera when she tells her to smile).