Who Goes out of the House Looking like this?

Well, I did it yet again! I went to school with these two different shoes on! I didn't even notice my fashion mistake until lunch time which is a good thing or it would have been bothering me the whole day instead of just for the afternoon.
To top it off, I had a prospective parent visiting this afternoon. Would you sign your child up in a Preschool where the teacher wore two different shoes? I guess she did not notice because she signed him up on the spot. I also ran out to Walmart after school, but let's be real here folks, it is Walmart, so who would notice there. Helping out was the fact that my navy pants were nice and long today so you couldn't even see the straps of the shoes, (I have the pants pulled up here for the photo) plus with these crazy snowflace socks it also helped hide the shoe mishap. And in my defense, these shoes are very similiar right down to their plaid insides, well except that one is brown and one is black! HA!
Well, I wonder how many more times this will happen to me in my teaching career? I am sure this is not the last!

Sharing our Christmas Blessings

John and I enjoy choosing a name off of the Christmas tree at our local Walmart and purchasing gifts for the child we chose. Hopefully we are making some child's Christmas just a little bit more special because of the gifts we bought for them.
This year I wanted to choose a child around Tizita's age, but John thought we should choose an older child because an older child just might understand and appreciate the gifts more than a three year old, so we looked around the tree for that "perfect" child.
It didn't take long until we spotted her. It was a seven year little girl and we chose her because when we read her list (which I am sure her mom or dad wrote) the only things she asked for were a T-shirt and a pair of pants. Some of the cards listed electronic games by brand and other pricey items. We figured a little girl who only asked for a shirt and pants would be fun to buy for and easily pleased with our choices so we set off shopping.
I know how much the first and second graders at St. John's love their hamster pets that scoot all around the room, (I can't remember the name of the pets right now, but they are very popular) so we chose on of those as well as a little carrying case for the pet.
We also bought a Dr. Barbie set with lots of accessories, some Tinkerbell pajamas, two outfits (one with Rapunzel on it), four headbands, three bracelets, and a handmade pink hat from Courtney. We think we made some pretty good choices and we are hoping our little girl will be pleased when she opens everything.

The pet is a zoo, zoo pet, but I don't think I spelled that correctly.

John just dropped the boxes off today so they can be delivered in time for Christmas. It feels good to do something nice for someone else especially because we have been so blessed.

Snow, Baking, Walking = A good Saturday

This is what we woke up to this morning-the first snow of the season. Of course, it was no big surprise since the weathermen had been talking about the white death for a week. We ended up with about six inches of fluffy stuff and it was pretty. This was the scene out our back door. John was out early shoveling.

Mom and I baked eight different kinds of cookies this morning. I woke up with the desire to bake a few batches, then I ask mom to help me out and we really went to town.

Here is mom working hard on some of the cookies and I am sorry it is sideways, I can't figure out how to turn it, so let's just call it artsy.

I always bake No Names which from a recipe I got from Ohma, my grandma on my mom's side. They are one of our favorite bars. Here are two pans of the famous No Names with Ohma's cookie tin. I remember her filling that tin with so many yummy cookies over the years and now I like to use the tin for my cookies. Baking Christmas cookies brings back lots of happy memories.

After baking, John and I took a walk in the new fallen snow. We walked around Riverside Park and then ended up on Tivoli Island. I know I won't say this in mid January when I will have been looking at this white death for months, but it is very pretty right now.

So, it was a busy, but fun filled Saturday indeed.

And this is why John stopped helping me with the tree

It was years ago that John retired from his job as assistant tree decorator. His main responsibility was getting the tree into the house, into the stand, and then put on the lights. Simple enough, right? No, it was anything but simple for us. The tree was always bigger than it looked in the woods, it never had a straight trunk, never stood in the stand without many blocks of wood, and the lights would never all work! Eventually, we went the artificial route which proved much easier. John's job description at that point was bringing the big box with the tree upstairs and setting it up. The rest was my job.
When on of my students was working on decorating the little tree in our classroom, this is what I found. Somehow the garland had ended up wrapped around him instead of on the tree.
And this is the main reason John stopped helping me with the tree decorating! It just wasn't worth the hassle!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Tomorrow is December 1 and I for one am excited that it is finally here. This has always been my favorite time of the year and seeing it through the eyes of 37 little Preschoolers each day makes it all that much more special. I don't know who is more excited, the teacher or the kids. My classroom is all decked out in holiday flair. I always put up a child size tree that the kids are allowed to decorate and undecorate as many times as they want. I figure that the kids are usually only allowed to view the tree from a distance with a no touch policy so our tree lets them touch all they want. I also have a fireplace up on the wall where the children can sit and "warm" themselves while reading a good Christmas tale. I was explaining all the new activities to the children the other day and I was talking about the fireplace as if it were real. One of my little boys said, "You know, Mrs. Damman, that fireplace is fake." What would I do without my children?

Anyway things look a lot like Christmas at school and at home. The tree is up and looking so fine this year. I absolutely hated this new tree last year, but as I was assembling it this year, I realized that I never pulled the branches apart last year. No wonder it had so many bare spots!
This year it looks so much better. Here are a few of the ornaments that I am highlighting this year. Look at my sweet little girls on this one! One of my students gave me this ornament when I was her Preschool teacher years ago. Courtney and Becky (the student) became very close friends in High School, but that is neither here nor there. I always put this ornament up first and give it a prominent, front spot on the tree. It brings back such happy memories for me.

Each of my girls made these handprint ornaments in Preschool. I think Courtney was almost four when she made this one. Look how nicely she wrote her name.

And here is Alissa's handprint from Preschool. I think she was just turning three, but the name sure is good for that age, so maybe I am off on that, but then, Alissa was always ahead of her age. I think it had something to do with how long she spent in utero! I also cannot figure out why her fingers look so short and fat. I don't remember her having fingers like this!

My favorite ornament is one with Alissa's picture on it. I featured it on my blog last year. Anyway she wrote her name like this "Assila" on that ornament. I never, ever want anything to happen to that ornament, it is so precious to me. I didn't keep a lot of things from when my girls were young, so I value these treasures so much.

John brought this ornament into our marriage. He didn't bring much as far as material things go, but he did bring this. We always put this ornament in front of a little light. It is Catholic because of the halo around Mary's head, so it brings a bit of his former religion into our home.

We always take time to remember my dad at this time of the year. Actually we remember him at all times of the year but especially at Christmas. This is an ornament with his name on it which has a important spot on our tree. We also have some homemade Santa magnets and some walnut Santas that he made, but I did not photograph them.

Our tree is full of happy, precious memories which is what a tree is all about, I think.

Here is a peek at my village. It is always fun to put the village up and it keeps getting bigger every year.

Here is the theater. And...

In all the hustle and bustle of the season, let us not forget the real reason for the season. I can assure you that if you ask any of my little ones, they will tell you that Jesus is what Christmas is all about!

Another Thanksgiving is in the history books or in this case on the blog

We had a lovely Thanksgiving feast at Vikki's house today. She and her brother Sean did all the cooking and everything was very tasty indeed. It was just me, John, and my mom since our girls were off in other states eating turkey with out laws and then Kev, Mal, Vikki's mom, Sue and her significant other, Mr. Winters, her Aunt Ruth Ann and her significant other, Todd. Lots of significant others in this party-I guess John and I were the only married ones there today, huh!
Sometimes I worry about the dynamics of a new gathering like that with people we haven't met yet, but there was no need to stress even one bit. The men sat and ate in the living room while watching football and the ladies enjoyed our meal in the dining room and the conversations were easy and painless. Vikki comes from nice people.
Now I am wrapping a few presents and enjoying the tree and the village. My work here is almost done for Christmas. John is going to work tomorrow since he doesn't have vacation time yet, but I am also heading over to school for a bit, so all is good with that. He plans on doing the outside lights on Saturday so hoping that goes well and all the lights light.
Off to watch the Apprentice now, see who is fired this week.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

No photos today, just some thoughts that I want to document so I can look back and remember them.
Today was the first really cold, blustery day that we have experienced this fall after our wonderfully warm weather up until now. There were a few snowflakes flying, but it all turned to rain by afternoon.
I put up the village last night. I reread past blogs and realized I was behind on my decorating, so without delay I jumped into it and finished not only the village, but wrapped up my pictures and some boxes to use for decorations, too. I really thought I wanted a real tree this year, but that idea is quickly leaving me because I realize with a real tree I can not put it up in the next day or two or it will be needleless by Christmas. I also remember vividly the trouble John and I always had putting that frickin' tree in the stand. I don't think that would have changed since I don't think anyone has invented a stand that loads the tree itself yet. Not to mention the needles which we would be picking up until next summer and really, does the smell ever really linger as much as we think it should? No, I am going downstairs to get the fake tree up as soon as I am done with this post. Done, done, and done.
I went out to lunch with Lynne today. We went to Upper Crust on a long overdue birthday lunch. Enjoyed good food and good conversation. It is always good to visit with Lynne. I appreciate her positive outlook on life. I am still confused about the bill, but as long as Lynne felt it was fair, I am fine with it. I hope we can get together soon again.
We will head over to Vikki's tomorrow for Thanksgiving. I am glad that I do not have to cook and I am glad that no one is here this year. It is going to be a nice, productive few days. I made two chocolate chip/pumpkin pies for Vikki's. I am looking forward to meeting her family and spending some time with them. Courtney, Paul, and Tiz will head to Iowa tomorrow and Alissa and Nathan will head to Bloomington later today. I wish them all good, safe travels and an enjoyable Thanksgiving. I will miss being together, but like I said, I am looking forward to a relaxing few days and we did have our Thanksgiving last weekend.
Well, I hear a tree calling me from the basement so I better go see what it wants.
Later...