Did You Survive?

Did everyone survive Christmas? Are you stuffed full of food and surrounded by wrapping paper and toys?
It didn't take long for me to recover and guess what...the tree is down and out already! Still have decorations around and the lights on the house though. I am happy with what I got, mostly things I asked for. I'm excited that I got two memory sticks because with all the stuff I'm downloading from these blogs, I want to back them up!

Christmas Eve was at my grandparents' house and everyone showed up. It was pretty pleasant (no family drama today!). Lots of pictures too. And I may or may not have started a wrapping paper ball fight that my cousins and dad and aunt and uncle were involved in :) It was so much fun though and my cousin (ack she's 13 now!) told me that was pretty awesome.

We don't really give each other presents now, just the 13 and unders and there are only 4 of them. But the grandparents get stuff and the couples usually give each other wine. But my aunt really wanted to give us stuff and besides the card and a little spending money my grandparents give everyone, I was pleasantly surprised with a candle and lotion from my aunt. I wasn't expecting anything!

And everyone looks forward to when someone leaves (this is not in a mean way) because there is a large window in the living room and when you leave, you 'go down the elevator/stairs'. It's hilarious. The person out side walks forward but slowly goes lower to the ground. This used to stump my two littlest cousins forever. They really thought that stairs appeared! My only boy cousin didn't do the stairs this year, instead he moonwalked!

Ever since my grandparents moved into this house about seven years ago, we've tried to adjust to it. But it's still not quite like their first house, the one we had so many memories in. We try to create new memories in this house together. We've lost my cousin, but have gained a new one. I've come to realize that even though you have made memories in a house, it's the people that make them and not the house.  Treasure all the memories you create!

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Wishing You All..

I'm wishing you all a safe and merry Christmas! Enjoy this time with friends and family! As I sit here typing this, I think about how my greatest gift this year has been the blogging world and TBA. New friends are such a wonderful thing! It's such a pleasure 'working' with all of you and getting great ideas, and most importantly getting to chat with all of you. We have a wonderful support system :)

Tonight I'll be with my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and parents. It's not often that we are ALL together with our busy lives, so it's a gift in itself.

Have a merry Christmas everyone!

 

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Christmas Survey

As I sit here waiting for the insurance dude to come check out my car,  I decided I'd do the Christmas Survey that Kristin at A Teeny Tiny Teacher did the other day :)


1.  Wrapping paper or gift bags?It depends on the gift. I will use wrapping paper 95% of the time. But if it's a ball or a large item, then the gift bag.
2.  Real tree or artificial?
Real. That's what I had for the most part growing up and then my mom's allergies got bad and so we had an artificial one. But nothing beats the smell of the pine tree :) (Well except baked goods!)

3  When do you put up the tree?
Generally the weekend or next weekend after Thanksgiving.

4.  When do you take the tree down?
Whenever it happens. Usually by the first week of January.

5.  Do you like eggnog?
Sad story :( I LOVE eggnog. But a few years ago, whenever I drank it, it didn't love me. So now I'm on a mission to try to make my own and see if that helps.

6.  Favorite gift received as a child?
Hmmm. I am not sure. Probably something Barbie related.

7.  Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes. I have a small jade set. Can't wait til I get a bigger one though. Growing up, we had one that had moss on the manger and everything. I loved it so much.

8.  Hardest person to buy for?
My mom. Every year! She doesn't really need/want anything she says. And if she does, she goes out and buys it. This year, most of the stuff that she's getting she knows because she picked it out *sigh* But her stocking stuffers will all be surprises for her. And I got her a scarf, but she doesn't know what it looks like hehe.

9.  Easiest person to buy for?
My dad. He's into guns, history, war stuff, BBQing, and the Dallas Cowboys. So it is really easy to get Dvds, books, and Cowboy related merchandise.

10.  Mail or email Christmas cards?
I love Christmas cards. I've got a dozen hanging right now, some on the table, and just got one yesterday with the yearly letter of what's going on in their life.

11.  Worst gift you ever received?
Hah, that would be from my grandparents and one year they gave all of us grandkids a  toothbrush. Yeah, gee thanks :)
12.  Favorite Christmas movie?
 I can't pick just one! Christmas Vacation, Christmas with the Kranks (I love the book too), Christmas Story, and any of the old Christmas cartoons.

13.  When do you start shopping for Christmas?
When I can :) I have no set date but I usually get the stuff in December.

14.  Ever recycled a present?
Actually, I don't think I have.

15.  Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
My grandma's peanut butter popcorn, date bars, and oatmeal cookies. We only get them at Christmas.

16.  Clear lights or colored lights on a tree?
Clear on the tree !
17.  Favorite Christmas song?
Ummmmmm I can't pick one, there are too many! I love Christmas Canon, Jingle Bell Rock, and lots more :) I started listening the day after Thanksgiving and listen every day!

18.  Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Christmas Eve is at the grandparent's house and we all go there. Christmas day is with my parents.

19.  Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Yes I can!
20.  Angel or star on top of the tree?
Angel.  Though maybe one day there may be a star :)
21.  Open the presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?
Christmas Day, but we get to open presents on Christmas Eve at the grandparents' house.
22.  Most annoying thing about this time of year?
The crowds and the nasty people.
23.  Favorite ornament, theme, or color?
Favorite ornament is a red tricyle I got at a Christmas tree farm when I was six.
24.  What do you want for Christmas?
There is nothing I really need/want. I just want to be with my family and listen to Christmas music and laugh. But if I have to pick something...an iPhone ( I have a smart phone, but would love an iPhone).

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Productive Day!

Wow I was productive today and it's only 2:30 pm (PST lol). I woke up early like I do every day in case I get called. But once 8 am came around, I was pretty sure I was in the clear. So I sat down and wrote two shopping lists. One for the grocery store and one for the outlet mall to try to finish my Christmas shopping.

I brought along a little pal, Bailey Bear to the outlet mall for some pictures.

Bailey waving hi. See the Christmas tree in the back? Supposedly the tallest decorated Christmas tree in Oregon.

Bailey Bear is travelling around the world *started in UK* and I got him a few days ago. Whomever has him takes pictures around where they live and any attractions, etc. He gets shipped to the next person on the list. When he's finished, he'll have gone from the UK to Canada, to the USA, Australia, and New Zealand and back to UK where his family is. This all started through friends I made on a game on Facebook where I became a moderator of the forum (which I'm no longer a mod, but 2 years was awesome for friend making!).These are the same people I did an ornament exchange with the last two years :)

Anyway, I could go off and I should focus back on this lol. So I did get some little Christmas stuff but feel like I still need more for my mom. Dad is taken care of. And I won't post what I got for mom in case she wanders on to my blog *waves hi to mom!*

Then I got groceries. I also got the making for a taco soup for tonight. And for the ingredients for 4  cookie recipes I'm making for Christmas. I plan on bringing them possibly to a gift wrapping party on Monday. We bring our presents and anything else we want, and she'll provide snacks and some wrapping paper and tape. Sounds like fun right? I've never been to one and it looks like I'll be able to make it :)

And not so fun, gassed up my car. It went down a little bit at $3.49 a gallon. In Oregon, we don't pump our own gas, so I don't know what the prices are like around the US and if this is reasonable or not lol.

And tomorrow, I'm going to a friend's house and then we are going out somewhere and it should be about 6 of us friends altogether. What a way to kick of Christmas break!

I really want to open the one present under the tree...lol. It's from my godparents and they give me a book every year (since I was 1!). And it's always a Christmas related book. I've gotten The Polar Express, Christmas with the Kranks, and a few others. But my godmother (who is also my aunt) who is a retired teacher, laughed as she told me this year it isn't Christmas related, but it is teacher related. Now she's got me curious!

Bailey Bear is curious too! No peeking!



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Wacky Wednesday

Wacky Wednesday is what some of the kiddos in the district I sub for call our Wednesdays because they are wacky due to late start. So the schedule is shortened/rearranged/askew/crazy!

I made my copies, free handed a gingerbread man and a gingerbread house in case I ran out of things to do and they could color them (they're first graders). Then the teacher next door, who teaches the Spanish part, threw my morning schedule out as we brought both classes together and  finished stuff and started on an art/Christmas project.

Guys, I wish could have taken a picture, but we were sooooo busy! They took a pine tree branch and dipped the tip in green paint and smacked (yes SMACKED) the paper. In the afternoon they were going to take a fir branch and dip it in red paint and smack on top. Instant wrapping paper! And they learned the difference between the two kind of trees!

Then we raced to specials, then I raced them to lunch, then raced to teach ELD, and then the afternoon kinda went downhill a bit. There were a few meltdowns and tears. So I had to use bribery. I don't always use bribery, but for my sanity, I needed it.

My Oma from Germany sent little bitty chocolates to use for any class I wanted and I figured this was most likely the last day I would sub before winter break. So I used my little chocolates as bribes. I heard myself telling them, "If you are good the rest of the day, you get one."

Well you would think that would help right? Wrong. Had four kiddos who didn't get one at the end of the day and afore mentioned meltdown, well one of the meltdowners had another meltdown about not getting candy. Forget about me telling him I set them aside for the teacher to give tomorrow if he is good, he wanted it NOW. Sheesh. So there are four candies on the teacher's desk for them if they are good tomorrow. Do you know how hard it was for me not to give them to those kiddos? In the past I would have, but seriously, had to be FIRM with them.

Two more days, two more days! Then it's break. And Friday I'm going out with some friends. One of them REALLY needs a pick-me-up so this should help I hope :) Counting down the days!

Oh and I have 50 followers...wooohoo! I'm thinking maybe a gift card for when I get 100. Or maybe I'll make something special :)

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On the 10th Day of Christmas...

My true love gave to me, ten-lords-a-leaping.... just kidding :) I'm not giving everyone ten lords, though imagine the work that could get done in the class in your houses!

I am part of the 25 Days of Gifts!

In celebration of the 25 Days of Gifts, I've made two poems and giving you my friend's recipe (I'm sure she got it from somewhere/someone else lol) for Bacardi Rum Cake. She says she never has any left!

Click Santa's head for the link!

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Snowflakes...

Oh today went much better than yesterday! No headache, no frozen car, and no rotten class. Still no yogurt, but I had a good breakfast anyway. Still a bit crazy as we switched classes a few times, had both classes together (that's like almost 50 kids in one space!!) and the sub next door was  a bit late. Hectic, chaos, but still a wonderful day :)

Ok, now to show you my snow in the window. Who knows if I will get snow this year, but thanks to Pinterest, I have snowflakes :)

Remember my ornament garland? Well I loved it so much, I wanted to make another, but a little different. So I made one with snowflakes and ornaments.

I mixed it snowflakes and silver/gold ornaments. I love it as much my other one.

I moved the regular ornament one to the spare bedroom. Let me tell you, it makes things more festive!

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Friday Freebie

I worked four days this week and boy was it busy but fun!I had two days in the same classroom and turns out the tacher was using me as a bribe to the runner, telling him if he stayed with the other sub in the morning, he could come be with me. Must have worked because I had him in the afternoon lol. I've never been used as a reward before!

We also did a Christmas countdown art project and made red and white paper links and attached them to bells so they can rip off a link each day til Christmas. And of course we had to listen to Christmas music while working on these. The kids were seriously angels for that hour it took them!

Ok I think I need to invest in Adobe so I can make PDF's and keep my cute fonts and pictures. Google Docs is annoying me grrrr.  I was going to have a much more elaborate poem, but instead you get a clean and simple one, which is actually kind of fitting because it's about snowflakes!

Click the snowflake to get the link to the poem!

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Kid Recipes

Day 4 of Christmas Ideas week on TBA! That means tomorrow is the last day :( But there is the 25 Days of Christmas going on and I'm hosting a day next week, yay! Wow, that was a roller coaster of emotion right there lol.

So today is Kid Recipe day!   Continuing on with the German theme I did yesterday, here is a kid recipe for one of my FAVORITE German cookies that I associate with Christmas.

Lebkuchen! Pronounced layb-kooch-yen. The kooch part is not ch like church...it's that German-in-your-throat-that-sounds-like-you-are-coughing-up-something sound.

It's kid friendly because everything is mixed in one bowl, put in one pan, then baked! Normally you don't really decorate them, but the kiddos could put on a light frosting too. I guess you could say it's German gingerbread.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 2 cups flour, all-purpose
• 1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice (see comments above)
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup chopped almonds
• 1/2 cup mixed candied fruits and peels, finely chopped
• 1 egg white
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350° F.
• Grease a 15 X 10 X 1-inch baking sheet.
• In large mixer bowl, beat egg and oil. Add brown sugar and beat well.
• Add honey and molasses. Mix well.
• Mix together flour, pumpkin pie spice, and baking soda. Add to egg mixture and beat till well mixed.
• Stir in almonds and candied fruit and peel. Dough will be very thick.
• Spread in baking pan. Use back of spoon to spread, dipping spoon in water so that dough doesn't stick to spoon.
• Bake for 15 - 23 minutes or until done.
• with a sharp knife, score into bars immediately upon removing from oven by just cutting through the top crust.
• With mixer, in small bowl, beat egg white, powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth.
• Spread icing over warm bars. Cool completely.
• Cut through completely at the score marks to cut into individual bars.
• Makes about 32.

This is how I know them!

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Christmas Around the World

Day 3 of Christmas Ideas week on TBA! Around the world is the theme.

Well I'm 1/2 German and we do celebrate a few things the German way. One is advent wreath with candles and the 4 Sundays before Christmas we sing songs and light them (well we haven't the past few years) but I would play piano and my mom the guitar.

We also did St. Nikolaus, on the night of Dec. 5th, you put out your shoe(s) outside yoru bedroom door. In the morning of the 6th, you hopefully have treats and not coal. My treats would be little things like bracelets or a movie, or some candy. So I loved it because it was like a mini-Christmas!

I also make traditional German cookies now, based on ones my Oma makes. Linzer  cookies are so yummy!
My Oma makes them 3-tiered sometimes! She makes heart ones with a circle cut out on top so you can see the jam. The 3-tiered ones are ruffly like flowers.

These are mine from last year!

I plan on making them again this year. Here is one of the recipes I use:

• 2/3 cup hazelnuts (3 oz)
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 12-oz jar seedless raspberry jam

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Toast hazelnuts in a shallow baking pan until fragrant and skins begin to loosen, about 6 minutes. Rub nuts in a kitchen towel to remove any loose skins (some skins may not come off), then cool to room temperature.

Pulse nuts and 1/4 cup brown sugar in a food processor until nuts are finely ground.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Beat together butter and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a stand mixer (preferably fitted with paddle) or 6 minutes with a handheld. Add nut mixture and beat until combined well, about 1 minute. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined.

With floured hands, form dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a 5-inch disk. Chill disks, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 2 hours.

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.

Roll out 1 disk of dough into an 11-inch round (1/8 inch thick) between 2 sheets of wax paper (keep remaining dough chilled). If dough becomes too soft to roll out, rewrap in plastic and chill until firm. Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with larger cookie cutter and transfer to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging about 1 inch apart. Using smaller cutters, cut out centers from half of the cookies, reserving centers and rerolling along with scraps (reroll only once).

Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 10 to 15 minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies from second disk.

Spread about 1 teaspoon jam on flat side of 1 solid cookie and sandwich jam with flat side of 1 windowed cookie. Sandwich remaining cookies in same manner.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Linzer-Cookies-233295#ixzz1fF8sf9ik

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Holiday Craft

Today is day 2 of Christmas ideas week and it's Holiday Crafts! Here it is.....what I've been dying to share with you the last few weeks! And yes, it's Pinterest inspired!

It's an ornament garland! You'll need one thick/sturdy ribbon and then 2-3 different colored skinny ribbons, and ornaments of different colors.

My varied ornaments (color and size!) from Dollar Tree.

My ribbon (Dollar Tree!). The white with snowflakes is my thicker one and the red and silver are my alternating ones.

Cut varying lengths of ribbon and tie them on to the ornaments.

Then tie them on to the big ribbon, staggering the lengths and colors and tack/tie/secure it to a window (I tacked my window frame).

It looks great from the outside too but I couldn't get a good pic. (That's my car in the street. Hi car!)

Next week I'll show you another garland I did. I love it just as much! But it has different materials *wink wink*

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Sunday Sunday

Ahhh Sunday. Still part of the weekend but you back up to the dreaded Monday.

Today I met up with a friend at 9 this morning, and my parents came too, and another family was supposed to be there but totally forgot we planned it ...woops! Still love ya Liz and Tony! This was the third year we've gone outside to the memorial and put blue Christmas lights up on the memorial for 2 fallen officers (and for the chief, but he is alive, yay!)

Anywhoo, we decorated the memorial (we'll put up wreaths later) and then went to Starbucks. Our little gathering turned into discussing next year's auction (did I tell you all that I'm in charge of decorations because they were so impressed this time around?!?!? I even get a no limit budget, within reason lol).

I'm kind of dreading tomorrow...I work 4 days this week. Tomorrow is kinder, then 1st two days, then kinder (different one) and have nothing for Friday yet. But kinder. After a  5 day break. Yeesh.

So let's change the topic shall we? Hehe. Oh I know, I'll post a pretty picture from something Pinterest inspired (no this isn't the one I was so excited about the last few weeks, that I am saving for December!)

I made an ornament wreath. Well sort of. It turned into more of a 1/2 wreath.  You just need ornaments (kind of like several tubes from Dollar Tree), a wire hanger, and ribbon (optional).

Straighten out the wire hanger and then make into a circle. Then slip all the ornaments on to your heart's desire. I alternated colors and size of ornaments. Squish them close together until it's as full as you want and wire it shut. I wrapped ribbon around and made a bow. I just need a place for it now....

Oh and my tree is up! And decorations! And lights on the house!

Don't you just love this ornament tree? It's fabulous!

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I can smell Christmas...

 Christmas season is just beyond my reach...so close! I love the Christmas holiday time because of the decorations, the music, the love I feel around me, and giving gifts.  Yesterday I had a Christmas card class. It was the class I bought at the auction and I've been looking forward to it.

It started at 7 pm and there were 6 stations. Four of the stations were for Christmas cards and two were for gift tags. Friends, Christmas music, and being crafty...I was in heaven!

We made these adorable creations with Stampin' Up! stuff. The cards and paper were laid out for us but we had to cut them into the shapes with the little tools. We also got stamp, jewel, emboss and do other fun stuff. I like using little gadgets. Oh they came out beautiful. And to my surprise it was after 9:30 when I was done. And I left and people were still there! Oh and we also got envelopes. It was so much fun!

Here is one of my little beauties!

Christmas is love with all the trimmings is what the stamp says. We had to stamp the stockings, the sayings, cut the stockings. And the black bumps we had to make the black paper bumpy.

And today I was working on another Pinterest project, but can't post pics yet because I'll be using it for

Click the link to see the list of events!

Yay! I love Christmas time!

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