Happy December!

Today is the day that the self-imposed ban on everything Christmas is lifted!  I have been waiting all week for this day, and with the snow falling outside and all my decorations inside and warmed up, I'm ready to get started.  I even bought a new Christmas album this year.  Along with all the decorating I have two projects that I am going to try to do side by side this year.  One is December Daily and the other is Journal Your Christmas.  Of course I have things happening over in the classroom too, but today is not about work, it's about enjoying the weekend.  Besides decorating, I am hoping to get my Christmas cards into envelopes and ready to mail out on Monday and there's a few emails that I have neglected to return.  Christmas shopping almost done, I really don't want to be out in the shops today with the roads so bad.  It turns people cranky and they harsh my Christmas buzz.
Well off to decorate!

Early start?

The Christmas season seems to be starting earlier and earlier every year.  I have already been to two Christmas events, and today I heard carols in stores.  Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but I almost feel tired of it when December actually gets here.  I have to admit though that I do love the shopping and wrapping of presents.  I am going to be doing 2 December projects this year and am trying to get the foundations done before next week.  I will be doing December Daily as well as Journal Your Christmas.  Both are a daily activity, but come from different angles.  We'll see how it goes.  I finished JYC 2011 two weeks ago, you could say I was a little behind.  Oh well.

Report cards go home this week and then we have parent interviews Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Why is it the parents you see all the time and come into the school all the time, are always the ones that want to talk and the other parents hide?  More than half of my parents did not respond to the interview request, so I'll be doing a lot of phone calls this year.  Such fun!

Good news, my classroom finally has heat in the 20's.  For two years, I have frozen all Winter, but parental concerns were noted and someone finally looked into the problem.  Apparently, my room was a little cooler than normal!  You don't say!  This week was lovely and warm, and I didn't have to wear 2 sweaters during the day.  We have been at -20 (-30 with windchill) for most of the week and not much snow, but it is definitely Winter out there.  We have been talking about time and Seasons at school and as I was reading a little book about the topic, we got to Fall.  The kids looked curiously at the pictures that showed green grass and lovely coloured leaves.  They pointedly looked outside and hands shot up "that book is wrong!  That's not Fall!" I assured them that not everywhere has a foot of snow for Halloween.  It mollified them slightly, but they didn't seem completely convinced.  Oh well, that's life in the North.

Is it worth it?

We keep our snow tires at the dealership where we bought the Forrester. This is a great idea most of the time. It's the two times a year when we have to change them that it proves to be extremely inconvenient. We have to make an appointment, drive for two hours and then hang around waiting for them to be put on. On days like today I have to ask if it's worth it. We had to get up at 7 on a Saturday and of course the weather has changed and it is freezing rain. The highway was a skate rink for a long portion of our trip. We were warned coming into the slippery section by two truckers standing on the side of the road. We pulled over to assess the situation. Lots of trucks were on the side of the highway putting on their chains and two vehicles in the ditch. If we didn't have the appointment and if winter hadn't come so early for us, we would have turned around, but we needed our tires changed. We might have to make some space in the shed.

Halloween is over... almost

Halloween.  That wonderful time of year when kids think of nothing except how much free candy they are going to get and the costume they are going to wear to get it.  That day is over for us, thankfully but now comes the really hard part.  Dealing with kids that have too much sugar running through their veins for the next 2 days. 

Ms Frizzle and the Magic School Bus

My class is really wonderful.  They are a very easy bunch to get along with, but I know for some the next couple of days is going to be hard.  Some will have candy pouring out of their lunch kits and won't really understand why they can't eat it all.  By Friday they will have eaten most of thier stash (hopefully) and then I won't have to deal with it for too much longer after that. 
This year, I convinced my wonderful husband to dress up.  He doesn't much care for Halloween.  I don't know if it's because of the face paint, scary costumes or what, but usually he takes a pass.  This year, he got in on the action. I haven't had a real costume in a long time and it was fun.  Being sick for the last 2 weeks dampened my enthusiasm slightly, but we finished our costumes at 11pm last night and had them ready for today.  It was a fun and busy day, and when we finally turned off the light at 8:30 we were both exhausted.
Last year, we spent about $70 for pumpkins for our two classes.  This year we asked for donated pumpkins, and I was pleasantly surprised.  We had 8 big pumpkins and 4 small ones come in for carving.  It was fabulous!  And the parent support I got was really great too.  I had 6 moms and an uncle come in to help carve.  It was great because I wasn't running around trying to get everything done myself and my classroom was pretty clean by the end of the day.  Whew! 

The big bummer about Halloween this year was the fact it was -15 at 5:30pm and got colder and there was 2 feet of snow.  We got 89 kids this year which was still pretty good, but last year we had over 100.  Still it wasn't windy, so our beautiful pumpkins stayed lit for the night.

On to Winter

or at least that is what it feels like.  We had a snow fall warning for Friday, our Pro D day and I really thought it would hold out until the afternoon.  Nope, we woke up to the snow falling.  It was also the day that I decided to jump into a session in another town an hour away.  Thankfully, my husband loves me a lot and drove me there.  We left after lunch, after hearing about a logging truck that had hit the ditch and closed the road for a short time.  We didn't feel like sleeping over, so we left as soon as we could.  It was a long drive back and the snow really hasn't stopped for that long.  It is now Sunday and it is still falling lightly.  No snow days for us, but it's nice to look at.  Unfortunately, we haven't got our Christmas lights up yet or the gutters done, so I guess that's not going to happen now.  If I'm lucky, the snow will melt and I can convince Chris to go up the ladder.  I have also managed to catch my first cold of the season, complete with aches and headache.  I've already planned for tomorrow.

On days like this;

 we do this;

 and eat stuff like this.

Hope you are keeping warm in your part of the world!

Thank Goodness for Mothers!

The school year is in full swing and we are already facing our first reports home this week.  Along with the actual teaching in my day, there are also meetings about students, workshops to improve and accent my teaching as well as lengthy union meetings.  Fun times! 
Admist all this, my mom came for a visit.  She has been steadily filling my freezer for a week with baking and yummy food so that we can get through the winter.  Ha!  What it really means is that Mr. can eat yummy sweet treats and I have a few less dinners to make. 
The weather has been wonderful, and on Saturday I was able to walk around in a t-shirt and shorts (probably for the last time this year) while Mom and I toured around town.  It has been great having her here and I wish they lived closer so that we don't have to pack so much into a short time. 
Mom came to school for a day last week, and was a little tired by the end of the day.  I had her cutting and laminating for most of the day.  The kids were a little curious about her and I'll probably get questions about when she'll be back.  This holiday weekend, we traveled about looking at scrapbooking stuff, did some gardening and she did some more baking.  Weight Watchers took a hit this weekend for sure.  Mom cooked a wonderful turkey dinner for Sunday and we ate early so Mr. could play hockey comfortably later in the evening.  Today we went for a walk in the Community Forest, even though the weather has now turned cold and damp.  Mom snapped pictures of our forest so she can take them back and show her friends.  My dad called this afternoon to brag about how hot it still was and how he was headed to the lake for a swim with the dog.  I hope he gets a sun burn!
Hope you had a great weekend!

and I'm back!

Finally!  My little technology world is back in order.  I had to be home for medical appointments on Friday, so I was able to take delivery on my lovely iPhone.  I'd missed the delivery guy the day before, but he got here nice and early.  Yay!  My message box was full ( I forgot to tell people that my phone was trapped in a box), and it took time to reload all my stuff onto the phone, but I did a little happy dance in my living room after I sent my first text.

My second little piece of happiness is when I picked up my new KOBO.  It didn't work right from the time I got it last Christmas, and after a few quick emails, KOBO sent me a new one with return postage for my old one!  This process was WAY less painful than the one with Apple, and it will make me consider KOBO again when I want to upgrade.  So far it's working like a dream.

Hopefully from now on, my technology works.  Chris says that I am Cryptonite to tech :(  So far Mac has not crapped out (touch wood).