That's one thing I hate! All the noise, noise, noise, noise!

Life goes on where the wild and precious things are.

I had lunch with my mother today.
She told me that she has lots of fun things planned for us the week I'm off of school. (Please imagine finger quotes around the word 'fun')
It seems that my only out may be to fake my own death. If you hear that some freak accident has befallen me, be skeptical at best.

Her ideas of fun include things like going to a ridiculously busy mall and meeting my sister for lunch while she's working. First of all, having lunch with my sister after she's worked for more than five minutes is super fun. So fun that I was going to cancel my scheduled dentist's cleaning because I just didn't feel like it, but am now going to go in for the cleaning and will ask if she has time to give me a root canal...

My typically very nice and relatively quiet upstairs neighbor has a friend over. A loud friend. That stomps around a lot. Combined with my play-guitar-at-all-hours-all-the-time-are-you-kidding-me next door neighbor, it's lovely and quiet here on the home front.

It seems I'm rather Grinchy right now.
Hm. Don't know what that's about.

We've been given our parts in the nativity play. And I'm the lobster.

I went ice skating on Monday night.
And didn't fall down.
I almost pulled a muscle in the 'not falling down' part, but I was proud of myself nonetheless.

Here's some fun pictures to show you. I'm a little sad that the pictures are blurry.

Gotta run to church for more dress rehearsal festivities.

P.S. It's cold outside.

P.P.S. I have a snoring dog snuggled up next to me, and I don't want to get up.

P.P.P.S. We are not going to make it to Christmas break.

What you need are cheat codes, motor skills, and a magic genie who grants wishes to little boys who stink at Mario Kart.

When you go to college to be a teacher, they teach you all sorts of things, none of which I can remember nine years later. I can, however, tell you the things they did NOT teach me in college that I have learned in those nine years.

I still think about people with "office jobs" and how many of them say the things I say during a day.

For example:
"Please stop touching the underpants."
"Untape your fingers."
"What do you mean can't find your shoe?!"
"He called you the 'i' word? I'm going to need you to spell that one for me so I know what you're talking about."

and my personal favorite:
"WHO is bleeding?!" (followed by the sounds of crickets chirping- no one will own up to it)

Aah the joys of spending the day with 9 year olds.
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Readings
Isaiah 11:1-10

Assignments:
- meet under the mistletoe (yeah...so not happening)

- Describe some of your favoirte holiday foods.
Easy: Egg Nog Ice Cream from Braum's. I have to have it every year. I've been known to be snippy when I'm told on the first day of December that they're out of egg nog ice cream. Just sayin'.

Welcome, Christmas, bring your cheer. Cheer to all Whos far and near.

Hanging of the green tonight at church. A beautiful new tradition.

Florida lost. They didn't deserve to win the way they played, and that's just how it happens sometimes.
Go tide. If my team loses, I root for the SEC representative. That's one of the many things that make us better than the Big 12.

I'm watching "Alice" on the ScyFy channel, and it. is. awesome. There's just enough whimsey to make me very happy. Very happy indeed. Of course, now I'm going to have to read the book.

I have to go back to work tomorrow. I'm not too happy about that.
I'm going ice skating tomorrow as well. Let's hope I don't dislocate a knee again.

Reading:
Psalm 89:1-4

Assignments:
- take time
I took time today to do laundry, and work on some December Daily.

- Write about one symbol of the holidays that has particular meaning to you.
I got nuthin'.
Absolutely nuthin'.

Not so fast!

1. I'm going to start putting the readings and assignments at the bottom of the posts. As we get closer to Christmas, they're starting to get a little more serious and ponderful (it is too a word), and my daily posts are not necessarily such.
2. I'm purposely writing this prior to THE game. I want to keep my tone hopeful and positive, instead of boastful and gloating after the game.

With that being said...Happy SEC Day, y'all! It's the best day of the year. All SEC fans can concur that unless your bowl game is THE bowl game, it is simply not as important as the SEC Championship game. Last year, this was my favorite game of the year. This year, I've been looking forward to it for quite some time.

For your benefit, here is the anatomy of a Southern girl's SEC Day.
8:45      wake up in time to hop in the shower before Game Day
9:00      Game Day. Lee Corso says "Not so fast!" Watch as much as I can while getting ready for baby shower.
10:00    Get present and go to baby shower. I'd like to take a moment to thank the organizers of said baby shower for having it early in the day so that I could make it home for THE game.
1:00     Come home and watch the Game Day that you missed. Am I the only girl around that tapes Game Day?
2:00    Pregame show. A must watch whilst last minute preparations are taking place.
3:00    THE game. Have plenty of snacks and plenty of things to keep my hands busy. Allow myself a four hour free pass for the words that come out of my mouth. Forgiveness will be asked later.

As for the rest of the day...who knows...there will be singing and dancing, or tears and gnashing of teeth. My money's on the dancing.

Readings:
Deuteronomy 18:15-19

Assignment:
Gather Together

Write about a specific holiday song that has meaning to you.
- This one's easy. Christmas Cannon by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully I will some day walk down THE aisle to this song. I'll be getting married in December, close to Christmas, and this song is perfect.  It is Pachabel's Cannon in D with Christmas lyrics. The lyrics talk of anticipation, dreaming, and waiting. Perfect for Christmas, perfect for my wedding (Lord willing.)

Now to find a picture that represents that song...

Sometimes your joy just gets scratched up a bit.

Reading:
Genesis 15:1 - 6

Assignments:
Let it snow!
Tell about a sentimental piece of holiday decor. (Maybe tomorrow...)

I am watching "The Shop Around the Corner". It's a Jimmy Stewart movie that was the inspiration for "You've Got Mail", which coincidentally enough, I mentioned in a conversation just this evening.

Last night's title was a quote from The Office, and when I do that, my sitemeter stats go through the roof. My usual 25 readers becomes 81.

So, those that were looking for info about last night's Office...

Welcome to the blog that has become Christmas readings and assignments of things to do, photo, and/or write about!

For now, I'm out. I'm exhausted, and there's a baby shower and a BIG GAME tomorrow.

In an ideal world I would have all ten fingers on my left hand so my right hand could just be a fist for punching.

Readings:
Genesis 3:8-15

Assignment:
- Keep Traditions

Question:
What does the word "joy" mean to you? Does it play a part at the holidays?

For today:
Wendy and I went to Canton today. I took the day off of work, which brings me such joy. Then, I pointed out a joy sign at the first booth, and from then on out, the "joy" was everywhere. It was fun. I almost came home with a woman in a red poncho. The weather was gorgeous. Chilly, sunny, and all around lovely. We discussed health care, the education system, and of course, Charlie Brown. We had no agenda, and we had fun. I bought some good stuff. A couple of these things are for birthday-ish presents for readers here, so I'm not going to go into much detail.

I also got day one of my December Daily pages almost done, and a few decisions made about other pages. It's a slow process, but I'm getting there.

For now, I've got a couple of presents to wrap and a sash to make. I'll tell you all about it and show you pictures when I get it finished.

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.

It's too early. I never eat December snowflakes. I always wait until January.

Ya'll.
I'm trying real hard not to use a level four curse word roundabout the holiday in which we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus, but I'm dealing with my mother and it just may not be avoidable...

For example, here is the conversation we had tonight. (I'm in italics)
When is your class giving you the gift?
Huh?
Your class gift. When do you get it?
Oh. I guess at the class party on the 17th.
Okay, because I'm going to wait to get some of your gifts until I know what kind of gift cards they give you.
Huh?
I don't want to get you the same gift cards they give you, because I know you'll use them, but I can get you gift cards to somewhere else.
Oh.

Ya'll.
I did not give my mother (or anyone really) a list of Christmas ideas, because I don't have any. I don't want for much of anything. If I need something, I buy it, but otherwise, I have no real gift desires this year. I don't ask for much.

It's funny but the people that know me best always get me the best Christmas gifts, even without lists. My parents and sister, however, are from a very different school of thought. Every year, my mother goes out and buys all of her Christmas presents, and leaves them in the corner of her bedroom until my dad asks me to wrap them. I'm quite certain he does the same for her. And we all know what happens when my sister gets something she doesn't want.

But, since my family is crazy every Christmas, it's up to me to navigate it on my own. Hopefully without curse words, but just in case, I'm reminded that the whole reason our Lord Jesus was born was to forgive me of my sins, including level four curse words. So, I'm pulling out my Bible and my Advent readings, and getting on with the reason for the season.

I'm going to read (and link) some of those verses every night.
I'm going to put one ornament on my tree a night, because I couldn't get it done before the start of December.
I'm going to do my Holidays in Hand writings every night. Except tonight, because I don't like it and I'd rather talk about this instead. I'll be asking you the questions as well, so be prepared to share.
I'm going to be getting my December Daily ready as well, little by little.

And just because I'm me, I'm probably going to be quoting Christmas movies as titles all the live-long season...
As for tonight's title:
Dear weatherman,
Please don't use the phrase "chance of snow" unless you see big white flakes coming out of the sky because it gets my kiddos ALL RILED UP FOR NO GOOD REASON RIGHT BEFORE A FULL MOON ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
Love and such,
Jen

Oh, and here's what I'm reading tonight:
Isaiah 40:1-5
Isaiah 52:7-10