Happy Birthday Big Bear!!

Congratulations Pipo!!!!

Words cannot express how happy I am for my wonderful friend Pipo!  Stop over and see her new Bundle of Joy.

Congratulations!!!

Ps.  Now Jack is ALL mine!  :)

'Tis the Season...

For hustle and bustle! I can’t believe it is a week until Christmas. My little corner of the world has been crazy, busy! I wanted to take a moment and check-in, bullet style.

Work has been extra crazy! The powers that be decided to begin a new grading program TWO weeks before the end of the second quarter. This program not only affects how we do grades, but all of my IEPs and the attendance are now completed through this new on-line program. Did I mention they decided to start this TWO weeks before the end of the year??? What the heck? We have had many meetings after school, before school, and during school to try and figure it out. TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE END OF THE QUARTER!!

All of our Christmas shopping is almost finished. We only need to find one more gift. I love gift cards! My niece and nephews are at that age where they are impossible to buy for. Gift cards to the rescue. No more trying to figure them out. Wooo Hooooo!!

I still have one tree to decorate. A week before Christmas and I still am decorating. I have our main tree finished. The second tree is in the dining room. It is up and floofed. We plug it in and it looks pretty, but it needs some decorations. I keep saying I’ll do it tonight, but by the time I get home I am exhausted. My brain hurts. See bullet one.

I have been reading your posts. I am so sorry that I am such a slacker in comments. Hopefully it will get better soon. I love seeing everyone’s decorations and holiday activities.

Saturday I am starting my Christmas cookie marathon. I usually do 12 – 18 different cookies and candies every year. I try to cut it back each year, but everyone in our family seems to have a different favorite. I hear, "It just isn't Christmas without _________." Secretly I don't mind. I enjoy giving a huge tray with a large assortment of goodies. Don't tell my secret! :)

My nephew called at the beginning of the month. He had to write about his favorite food memory. He wrote about making Christmas cookies with me. I was so touched. We talked about it, I gave him the recipe, and made a batch to take to school. I can’t wait to hear how they turned out.

I hope to share some of the cookies I make on the blog. No promises! It is going to be crazy around our house the next week or two. I can’t wait!!!

I better get back to work. I have to enter grades into our lovely new system and write lesson plans for the week we get back, NEXT YEAR!!
Happy Thursday!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!!!

Hopefully next year we'll have Polar Cub home.

I can't wait to see little shoes by the fireplace.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!!

Be Back...

Checking In...

Can you believe it is December 2nd? I can’t! Time seems to be going so quickly right now. I thought I better check in because this week is going to be crazy, busy for me and I don’t want to miss updating the blog.

Big Bear and I had a WONDERFUL trip to Chicago. It was great seeing my brothers, my sister-in-law, and niece. Look how cute my niece is!

On Friday we took the train downtown. We thought it was going to be crazy in the city, but it wasn’t too bad. Believe it or not I only purchased one thing. I didn’t get any Christmas shopping accomplished like I had hoped. After seeing the 10.75% sales tax I thought it would be better to shop at home.

While downtown we stopped in a restaurant to partake in a ‘refreshment’. Meet my new all time favorite ‘warm-up’ - pomegranate martini!! Yum! I have to find out how to make these!
As we worked our way down Michigan Avenue it was rather exciting to see all of the lights and shoppers. I love hearing the bells of the Salvation Army, and at some Salvation posts they had trumpeters playing. It was so magical! When we reached the Hancock building we saw this tree.
The picture doesn’t do it justice - it was amazing!!

Big Bear and I headed home early Saturday. It was good to go, but it is always great to get home. I probably won’t be blogging much this week. As I mentioned it is going to be a CRAZY week!! I think the entire month will be that way. ‘Tis the Season!!!!