Swimming With Dolphins: Munchkins, Munchies, and Music

Well, I survived another intense week at school, have enjoyed a busy weekend with my family, and finally have our laptop back in working order. In a nutshell, I visited a website for blog backgrounds that apparently released a trojan virus on my system and DH found tons of malware all over it. Thankfully, he troubleshoots computers for a living, so he saved the day. Why oh why do people make viruses? It's just plain mean!

Anyhoo, Monday was tough for all of us to come back after the long and much-needed Thanksgiving weekend. With testing, report cards, and parent conferences (well except for a couple) behind us, the staff has begun to breathe a bit easier. Myself and my fellow English teachers spent much of our week planning next year's budget and trying to get things planned for the last couple of weeks of December. However, the school also had to endure a 2 day visit from the Primary Years Programme authorization committee from the International Baccalaureate (PYP/IB) that all have been training for like mad for the last four years. The last few months have been the most challenging, but now that it is over, hopefully things will calm down a bit.

Friday was particularly crazy as I somehow managed to burden myself with four class "Fun Fridays" in a row. My students earn gems in a jar for good behavior and when they have filled the jar, they earn this special day. All four classes came off without a hitch, but took quite a bit of management and planning to achieve this end. I opted to set out some arts and crafts for holiday card-making, gingerbread books, or whatever tickled their fancy. I also had a game table and reading corner. For three of my classes, I provided some mini muffins or doughnut holes with apple juice as an added treat. My first graders can be quite squirrely and messy at times, so the very thought of cleaning up that kind of mess after them was too much, so I had to nix that part of it (they were never the wiser). They worked pretty hard over the last few months for me and it was my way of recognizing them for it. My toughest group to impress, the 3rd graders (who happen to be full of TAG-like prodigies), actually clapped for me as a thank you. That's never happened to me EVER, so you can imagine how much that meant to me.

Well, after rushing home after all that, I picked up my two monkeys and got them dressed up for an evening Christmas concert by Portland's Christian Center. We had some time before it began, so we did a little holiday shopping at Target and grabbed a quick bite to eat. To support my long time childcare provider's family, I take the kids to see their annual show. It is quite a spectacle and a very popular tradition for locals to attend. They sing a mix of traditional holiday hymns, popular carols, and throw in a couple of more recent hits. My favorite was "A Brand New Christmas," though I'm not sure who it's originally by. Their adult choir sings throughout the concert, with songs from their teen and children's choirs sprinkled throughout. Two of my childcare provider's daughters have been in the show for years as a part of their bell-ringing group. It's a beautiful and inspiring concert and we look forward to it every year. The assistant coach to the Trail Blazers, Monty Williams, was also there and gave a testimony. It's always a moving concert. The kids got a little tired and cranky at times, but did well for overall. It was late when we got home, so we just went right to sleep.

This morning (Saturday), we woke up early and got going. Hubby took us to MickeyD's for breakfast (real healthy, I know but it still tasted good). Then we headed to Loch Lolly Christmas Forest to pick out our tree and enjoy some other favorites. As I've said in years past, DH started going there when he was young, so it's been wonderful to pass on this tradition to our kids. It was already getting pretty crowded, so we found our tree fairly quickly. DH chopped it down and together we mounted it on top of the car. Next, we went over to their common area to see Santa. The kids of course loved that! N had no problem asking for a laundry list of items and K had to stop and think about her choices for a minute before shyly telling Mr. Claus what she would like. Very cute.

We also sipped some free hot cocoa and got up close and personal with some of the geese that were roaming around the nearby pond. I knelt down to take photos and a couple of them came right up to me and kept nipping at my scarf. It was colorful and for some reason they mistook it for food. It was comical. K got spooked by the geese when they got too close for her comfort, so we had to move on. As an added bonus, we got to see Sugar Plum and Frosty, two reindeer that were apparently in town from the North Pole just for the week. K kept asking where the rest of Santa's reindeer were and I told her they were busy getting ready for Christmas. They were really neat to see!

We came back home and sprayed the tree for bugs and will let it sit out overnight. We'll set it up and decorate it on Sunday, something the kids love to do. We are also going to try making our first gingerbread house. Will let you know how that turns out.