Well, no ice after all. Our Christmas party went well, and the kids were good. They seemed to like the movie and told me that I look like Joseph. When Jesus was born they clapped (which was cute) and then about 2 minutes later they just clapped to see if they could get everyone to clap (which was annoying). Another teacher complemented me on my worksheet (which was nice). I think it’s the best worksheet I’ve ever made; the discussion questions at the end aren’t all mine.
Search Results for: christmas
New spot for Nativity
Someday I’ll have to take pictures up close of our Nativity set. It’s got large wooden pieces carved in some other country, and it’s very nice. My favorite pieces are Shmoo Shepherd and Stingy Wise Man. Maybe tomorrow I’ll post their close-ups.
Anyway, I usually put them on top of the piano, but this year they’re in an upstairs window with sheets behind them to make them sillhouette-y. (The picture to post would have been of me taking this picture. Our camera doesn’t have a zoom, so I stood on a kitchen stool on the sidewalk. Pretty classy, eh?)
Uke Night 2
Saturday night was our second ukulele gathering in Omaha, and again -it was fun. We played some Christmas songs and learned how to play a tremolo. (It’s where you play back and forth across the all the strings very quickly at the end of the song to make it sustained. I prefer to do it while biting my lower lip – rock star style.)
Again, Lloyd was a trooper and played along. There were fifteen of us this time – one more than last time. Three people had just started to play that week, and for one lady, it was her first time to hold the ukulele ever. Sadly, the hot girls from last time were not present. Instead, we had the addition of a 10-year-old boy who REALLY had the lip-biting down.
Poor Charlie Brown
Brad’s having trouble with his lights again. Darn.
Checkmate this out
Every year I teach our 7th graders how to play chess, then around Christmas I send home an order form so that they can buy some nice chess stuff (by that I mean so that they can convince their parents to buy them some for Christmas (by that I mean that maybe their parents will throw some money my way to buy some chess stuff for school)).
We order from www.wholesalechess.com, and this year our order was over $500.00. They have great prices. This stuff would have cost well over $1000.00 anywhere else that I’ve found. At the bottom of the order form is a blurb asking them to consider giving a little bit to help buy some chess equipment for the school, and every year our parents are more generous than I expect. Last year, in addition to listing the price of a set ($6.90), I also said that chess clocks cost about $20.00 each. A parent sent in enough to buy three. This year I mentioned that a giant chess set costs $110.00 and a parent sent in $110.00.
It takes up both of my tables, but they were mostly used for playing smaller games of chess anyway. Interestingly enough, about the same number of people participate. Instead of having 8 people playing 4 games of chess, there are 2 people and a host of spectators. I’m training up a bunch of geeks.
The king is a little over a foot tall. So, my question for you is: Where am I going to store these?
On the road again….
It’s about 9 a.m. (Mountain Time) and we’re getting ready to leave our BEAUTIFUL hotel room in Denver. On the way to Colorado, we Pricelined a room for $50 and got a crummy ‘suite’ that was just a little creepy. It had a kitchenette, but no soap for the dishes, so I just trusted that the dishes were clean and God would keep us safe as we ate our soup.
But, THIS place can be had by bidding a mere $40! For some reason, we’ve been here several times, and it’s great. A beautiful kitchen with Corian countertops and a dishwasher, gorgeous linens, free internet connection – it makes me weep with joy. Check out their website! http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/DENTKÂ
We had a great time with my parents – lots of delicious food, good company, and we even helped hang Christmas lights and put up the tree. Their neighbors have a crazy huge display that takes up their whole yard and draws visitors from miles around, so that was fun to see, too.
It’s too bad we didn’t have a camera, because there were many great things to see. You’ll just have to wait until we get home and I will draw it in stick figures. Thanks for keeping this going, guys!