26 days of Christmas

I got this idea from here where she found it on Ins and Outs . This looked like fun and something different to do so I wanted to give it a try.

Day 1: Favorite Christmas song and why?
I have too many favorites to list!

Day 2: Favorite Christmas movie and why?
Christmas Vacation. My family watches it every year

Day 3: Hot chocolate or hot apple cider? Share a recipe of you favorite hot drink…
Hot Chocolate

Day 4: Does your family have any traditions?
Every year after Christmas dinner we sit and play some sort of game and then watch Christmas Vacation

Day 5: Favorite Christmas memory
Spending my first Christmas with Tyrel

Day 6: Who is your favorite reindeer?
Comet. I don't know why

Day 7: Have you been naughty or nice this year?
Both! lol

Day 8: What is your favorite food at Christmas time?
Mashed potatoes and gravy

Day 9: What are you doing for Christmas this year?
We went to my grandparents house

Day 10: Kissing under the mistletoe…have you done it?
Nope, but have always wanted to

Day 11: What kind of Christmas tree do you have?
Um I can't remember

Day 12: Do you take part in secret Santa?
When the occasion arises

Day 13: White Christmas? Have you ever had a Christmas with snow?
When we go to La Grande. But unfortunately it didn't happen this year

Day 14: Do you send out Christmas cards?
We did this year for the first time

Day 15: Do you have Christmas stockings?
Yup :)

Day 16: When did you find out Santa wasn’t real?
Santa is real! I get presents from him every year!

Day 17: Have you ever been to a Christmas parade?
No

Day 18: Which lights are better: white or colored and blinking or still?
Colorful. Doesn't matter if it's blinking or still

Day 19: If you were an elf what would your name be?
No idea... Um sappy? First thing that came to my head haha

Day 20: What color ornaments do you put on your tree?
Red and Silver ornaments. Ones that we bought because my mom has all mine that I collected through out the years :P

Day 21: What was your favorite present you received when you were younger?
I was given a pet rat! At the time I thought it was the coolest present ever :)

Day 22: Do you hang a wreath up?
Nope

Day 23: Ham or Turkey?
Both? I prefer ham

Day 24: Do you go to a church service or go caroling?
Neither. I've always wanted to go caroling

Day 25: Does your family have a Christmas breakfast or dinner?
Dinner

Day 26: How was your Christmas?
Good. Always nice to spend time with family

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

What a joyful and happy Christmas it has been. I have so much to be thankful for. I love being able to spend time with my family and surround myself with loved ones. This year, Tyrel and I headed to La Grande to stay with our grandparents. I got some pretty nice gifts and am getting in lots of quality family time.

Tyrel spent some time and debating trying to find me a good gift, but seeing that you waited until the last minute he wasn't able to find the "perfect" gift (or so he says haha.) But either way I'm happy with the gift I received from me

Yes that is a cookie monster wallet. Be jealous. The sock aren't from Tyrel but I still love them because they are toe socks! Anyway here are some of the other things I received.

I love me new slicer I got. I got to try it out when I helped my Grandma make lunch

Yes I know it's strange getting a play doctor set for Christmas, but it's for my classroom so the kids can play with it :)

I also got some really nice warm and comfy pants and jacket. And a nice shirt to wear to work. Tyrel was given a flying copter of the Millenium Fallcon. Yeah so what I have a boyfriend who likes toys. It actually is really cool gift and have been flying it all over the house

But I think the best present I received are my....

FOOTIE JAMMIES!!

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas.

My thoughts and frusterations

For the past 3 months my life has been consumed with pain, appointments, and stress. Because of this accident I've had to deal with 2 months of neck pain, back pain, headaches and chiropractor appointments. Up until recently I was also dealing with constant nightmares, that caused me to lose sleep at night. It took me quite some time to be able to drive, especially at night. I've just now gotten comfortable behind the wheel. Because of her I had to change my whole lifestyle. As a preschool teacher, I found it very hard to move around with the kids, bend over and stand for long periods of time. This of course caused me to cut back on my work load. I was unable to go on walks, swim, and play with my younger siblings at the parks. Due to headaches, pain or appointments I've also had to miss work which means missed wages are a huge factor.

I'm not writing this letter to try and complain, I just feel you, her and everyone else involved needs to know my feelings towards this whole case. Lately I've felt much anger and frustration that they have prolonged this case. This girl, who is underage, drank, got into a car, drove, hit me, and then drove off, all in front of a sheriff. I learned later that she blew twice over the legal limit. Someone like this shouldn't get off scott free. She needs to take consequences for her actions and needs to be fully charged of all accounts. This girl needs to realize that she should be very grateful that she was able to walk away from this accident injury free. There have been many of these types of accidents where people have died.

Another thing I have been wondering is where did she get the alcohol? Did someone provide it for you? They need to take responsibly as well. I hope that after this, she learns her lesson and doesn't go making a another mistake risking hers and other people lives.

Smarter then they appear

The kids were playing on the carpet where they had once again dumped out all the toys and were playing with the tub the toys were once in. Being the child I am I wanted to join in their game. I went to the tub, picked it up and put it on my head. I asked them if I could fit in the tub like they could. But before I had a chance to even find out they all yelled, "Noooooo teacher. Don't do it!!" With worried looks on their face I asked them how come and they quickly responded, "because you aren't suppose to!" Confused I asked them how come. They quickly then picked up the lid to the tub and pointed to a sticker posted on it.

I quickly explained to them what the sticker meant, but needless to say I never did find out if I was able to fit in the tub or not...

Kids are too smart these days

Wordless Wednesday: Happy couple pictures

A picture is worth a thousand words

My best friend is moving back to Portland. It's not as far as California thank goodness, but it's still not in Corvallis. Anyway, we got to hang out today before leaving for Portland and we were able to take some pictures.

I love this girl and would do anything for her. This just gives me more of a reason to visit Portland.

By the way, my Christmas pictures turned out SUPER cute. I want to post the pictures and show them off to everyone, but I want to wait until I send them out to people so we don't ruin the surprise. They should be printing today!! :)

Tis the season

Today was the day of our school Christmas party. After reading a Christmas book we all sat down at the table and made gingerbread houses! Ok technically it was it was with gram crackers but you get the idea. The kids had so much and they turned out so cute!

I had to join in the fun and make one too :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Spread the word

So I don't know if any of you have heard of Rick Perry, but he is one of the presidential candidates for the up-coming election. I was SHOCKED when I saw this this video.

I understand that everyone is welcome to believe in whatever they want to, but does he not realize that teachers and schools can't physically tell kids not to pray? As a preschool teacher, I allow the kids to openly talk talk about God and have a few kids who pray before eating. Being that we aren't a religious school we aren't allowed to teach it, but it's not because we think God is bad, we have to think about the other side. The side where people are offended by talking about God. We can't force religion onto people. And is he being serious about not celebrating Christmas? My class is celebrating Christmas, sure we have to leave out the religious factor of it, but it's not because we thin religion is evil, we are thinking about the feelings of OTHER people who aren't religious; including me.

I don't understand why people can't accept the fact that Christianity isn't the only religion in the world. Not only is my class celebrating Christmas, but we are celebrating other holidays that are recognized by other people through out the country like, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

I was very happy to come across this next video as a response to Rick Perry's video. As a teacher, I'm very proud of this person.

Christmas wonderland part 2

I know I've been posting a lot lately, but I wanted to make sure I upload everything I want before starting the crazy work week. Today I put up the rest of the Christmas decorations, including more Christmas lights. The first time we pulled out a strand of lights, we were going to hang them around the window, but they didn't work so Tyrel had to go back and buy a new pack. Everything looks great :)

Good thing we put the rest of our decorations up. Just 2 more weeks until Christmas!

And now, more Christmas lights!

Did I mention that I love this time of year??!

Zoo lights!

This year I went to zoo lights for the first time this year. It was very cold, had to stand in line for a long time, but it was totally worth it. There are lots of pictures, too many to post on here so I wanted to show some of my favorite ones.

While driving there I made an observation at the cold frost coming in and staying on the ground. Later as we were standing in line it started to rain, or at least tried to. With our luck though, it stopped shortly after.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures I will post the rest of them on facebook later.