So he paused - and the Grinch put a hand to his ear. And he did hear a sound rising over the snow. It started in low... then it started to grow.

Reading:
Isaiah 40:9-11

So, after I pointed out to my children (complete with makeshift weather map) that we would NOT be getting snow today, I walked out into a winter wonderland this morning. It started out as a slight flurry mixed in with rain, and turned into a full on snow event.

I went in to the grocery to pick up some necessary supplies, and saw something that my children had to have right that moment. When I came out, this is what my car looked like.

When we got to school, we were greeted with this. I have a steadfast rule in my classroom, and some of my kids remembered it from when they had me in second grade. At the first snow of the season, we drop everything and go outside. They must spend a few moments trying to catch something or other on their tongues, and then may play. Since today's weather was mostly wet, they had stricter requirements than usual.

After about 37.4 seconds, it stopped snowing, so I made them all come inside, where I had a little surprise waiting for them. We had hot cocoa with little marshmallows. Actually, this accident-prone-yet-afraid-of-being-sued teacher had warm cocoa for her kids. They didn't care.

The best part of it...we only lost about 15 minutes of instructional time. I'm that good.


Finally, more to my Christmas story. I have wanted to do more with Advent for so long. Last year, I made an Advent calendar on a cookie sheet. I love it. I goofed up and forgot 17, but made 20 twice. I'm leaving it like that because I'm nothing if not a goof up. Even so, I wanted more from my Advent. So, a few days after Christmas, I went to Target during their 75% off sale and got a beautiful $30 Advent piece for $7.50.

I finally figured out what to put in the boxes. I have little slips of paper with the daily reading on one side and an "assignment" on the other. I have a list of Christmas-y assignments that I copied from somewhere, and I randomly put them on the backs of the slips of paper. Yesterday's assignment was to hang stockings, so I found mine and hung them. Tonight's says "check it twice", so I'm making my list of what I've bought and what I need to get at Canton tomorrow, and then I'll check it once more just before bed.

So, now you'll have an assignment every day as well...and later on I'll tell you how neatly some of the "random" assignments fell into place.