Merry Christmas!!!
Yes, it still is Christmas, since we get until the Epiphany to celebrate. I think I should be giving y'all four calling birds today or something like that.....which reminds me of a funny school story. I taught my kids how to sing the "12 Days of Christmas" in Spanish, which, of course, they got a kick out of, but had an interesting time getting all the lyrics down. One particularly memorable one was when Vefa (one of my 5th graders) was singing "four calling birds" which, in Spanish, is "cuatro pajaritos" and he burst out "cuatro margaritas!" LOL....now that's my kinda 12 days of Christmas, heheh....j/k j/k...
So anyways, back to the update, break has been very nice. The last week of school went by in a blur. We got next to nothing done, obv, though I did give my 6-8th graders some kind of test/quiz that week....I wasn't as bad as Greg, the middle school language arts teacher, though, who gave them 5 pages of grammar notes on the last day of class....he definitely won the "gutsy" award for the day. I spent that afternoon mostly party-hopping (all the classrooms were having their Christmas parties) and playing dodgeball w/ the 8th grade boys. Good times. Then it was time to pack up all my loot (the student gifts were downright amazing.....I got everything from boxes of chocolates to a necklace and a nice travel mug set....the parents at this school are really generous....) and head home for the holidays!
I spent the next few days in traditional holiday frenzy. Since I didn't get out of school until the 22nd, and am still completely over my head in teaching stuff, I didn't have a chance to Christmas shop until the 23rd, but I managed to completely pwn my Christmas shopping in an hour and 20 minutes, w00t! 8-) Rachel and Sarah are home, too, which definitely adds festivity to the air. It's so great to have "The Magnificent Seven" together again (yes, that is what we call ourselves....); now I know how everyone else felt when Rachel and I were the ones missing and we'd come home...on the one hand we have a tad of catching up to do, but at the same time it's as though nothing changed and we almost go back in time to when we were little kids. Well, maybe that's just cause I act like a little kid a lot of the time when they're home, who knows. :-P
Christmas Eve was devoted to St. Mary's, as every holiday is, but we really overdid it this time. We showed up to sing at the 10 AM Mass toting two changes of clothes. After Mass, we spent the next few hours unsleeving, watering, resleeving, and arranging the pointsettias and other various Christmas decorations which has become our tradition to do. Fun times; I think we get faster every year, and, honestly, anything that all 4 of my sisters and I do together turns into a party. Annette (the lady in charge of the decorating) is starting to know us better as well, as we could tell by her comment: "what I like about you girls is that you're all a little warped." HAHA. yeah....it's true.....
After pointsettia-ing, we changed again to sing for the 4 PM Christmas Eve Mass. Dan was glad to see all the sopranos (it's so nice to have Rahcel and Sarah back....it's like we actually have a soprano section beyond me and Jessica :-P) and my sisters and I all took turns soloing different parts of the Mass. Then we came home (finally), ate, changed into our choir uniforms, and returned for the midnight Mass! Yes, three Masses in one day....we are crazy.....that was probably the best one though. The midnight Mass is SO cool! Also, we had an entire brass section, and a harpist, and drums, to accompany us. We sang our concert piece, the "Magnificat", as the communion meditation, and completely nailed it! It was the best we had ever done it, and probably sounded pretty sweet w/ the brass too. It was pretty thrilling....well, for music dorks anyhow. ;-)
Whoa, this is starting to get long. It's been a while since I've written a super-long update....time to speed up to teh present though. Christmas was great, since then I've not been doing much except I did a lot of grading yesterday, and am gradually getting back into "school mode" (yes, already, it's pathetic, but there is much to do....and it's better than only having a weekend). Today, Fr. Carl and Fr. Brad are coming in to visit, whom we haven't seen in about a year, so I'm very excited about that! Also thrilled to be heading down to Dayton soon! Yay for friends and New Years! I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas....I will be seeing some of you soon, and to the rest, take care and have a wonderful New Year! Hasta luego!
So anyways, back to the update, break has been very nice. The last week of school went by in a blur. We got next to nothing done, obv, though I did give my 6-8th graders some kind of test/quiz that week....I wasn't as bad as Greg, the middle school language arts teacher, though, who gave them 5 pages of grammar notes on the last day of class....he definitely won the "gutsy" award for the day. I spent that afternoon mostly party-hopping (all the classrooms were having their Christmas parties) and playing dodgeball w/ the 8th grade boys. Good times. Then it was time to pack up all my loot (the student gifts were downright amazing.....I got everything from boxes of chocolates to a necklace and a nice travel mug set....the parents at this school are really generous....) and head home for the holidays!
I spent the next few days in traditional holiday frenzy. Since I didn't get out of school until the 22nd, and am still completely over my head in teaching stuff, I didn't have a chance to Christmas shop until the 23rd, but I managed to completely pwn my Christmas shopping in an hour and 20 minutes, w00t! 8-) Rachel and Sarah are home, too, which definitely adds festivity to the air. It's so great to have "The Magnificent Seven" together again (yes, that is what we call ourselves....); now I know how everyone else felt when Rachel and I were the ones missing and we'd come home...on the one hand we have a tad of catching up to do, but at the same time it's as though nothing changed and we almost go back in time to when we were little kids. Well, maybe that's just cause I act like a little kid a lot of the time when they're home, who knows. :-P
Christmas Eve was devoted to St. Mary's, as every holiday is, but we really overdid it this time. We showed up to sing at the 10 AM Mass toting two changes of clothes. After Mass, we spent the next few hours unsleeving, watering, resleeving, and arranging the pointsettias and other various Christmas decorations which has become our tradition to do. Fun times; I think we get faster every year, and, honestly, anything that all 4 of my sisters and I do together turns into a party. Annette (the lady in charge of the decorating) is starting to know us better as well, as we could tell by her comment: "what I like about you girls is that you're all a little warped." HAHA. yeah....it's true.....
After pointsettia-ing, we changed again to sing for the 4 PM Christmas Eve Mass. Dan was glad to see all the sopranos (it's so nice to have Rahcel and Sarah back....it's like we actually have a soprano section beyond me and Jessica :-P) and my sisters and I all took turns soloing different parts of the Mass. Then we came home (finally), ate, changed into our choir uniforms, and returned for the midnight Mass! Yes, three Masses in one day....we are crazy.....that was probably the best one though. The midnight Mass is SO cool! Also, we had an entire brass section, and a harpist, and drums, to accompany us. We sang our concert piece, the "Magnificat", as the communion meditation, and completely nailed it! It was the best we had ever done it, and probably sounded pretty sweet w/ the brass too. It was pretty thrilling....well, for music dorks anyhow. ;-)
Whoa, this is starting to get long. It's been a while since I've written a super-long update....time to speed up to teh present though. Christmas was great, since then I've not been doing much except I did a lot of grading yesterday, and am gradually getting back into "school mode" (yes, already, it's pathetic, but there is much to do....and it's better than only having a weekend). Today, Fr. Carl and Fr. Brad are coming in to visit, whom we haven't seen in about a year, so I'm very excited about that! Also thrilled to be heading down to Dayton soon! Yay for friends and New Years! I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas....I will be seeing some of you soon, and to the rest, take care and have a wonderful New Year! Hasta luego!