>On the nth day of Christmas…

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>My students have sugarplums dancing in their heads instead of math facts. They’re dreaming of a white Christmas instead reading strategies. They’re more concerned about getting their snow pants and boots on quickly than finding their homework. If I were a Disney dwarf, I’d be Grumpy.
Maybe.
But it’s hard to be Grumpy when I’m setting myself up for my own holiday Zen, the simple mood-altering atmosphere that gets me in my own Teacher zone and helps me tolerate the Noise, Noise, Noise, Noise! — as the Grinch might put it.

Ingredients:
1 cup (okay, 16 oz., technically two cups) of hot liquid with caffeine
(can be Hazelnut, Peppermint Mocha, or simply the Folgers from the school office)
1 boom box on the table near my desk
1 set of fabulous and unique holiday music CDs
(And when I say unique, I mean it.)

Directions:
Sip lovely liquid.
Revel in taste and warmth.
Turn on lovely and unique tunes.
Take a deep breath (preferably over the mug of tasty fluid).
Then, and only then, turn on computer, check email, and begin to correct papers and finalize lesson plans.
Serves one teacher, well.

And if you’re looking for a little unique holiday music right now, in your cubicle or home office, try this.
The Twelve Days…and more

On a different “note,” my guest post is up at workitmom. You can find it here.

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>Oh, the agony

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I needed a picture for my guest post on WorkitMom. I tried to take one of myself using the bathroom mirror. Disaster; I won’t even show you how bad those looked. I could have scanned a school picture, since teachers get forced to take those every year, too, but I usually throw them away or hide them under stacks and stacks of books and papers. La Petite, chatting with me through IMs, offered to edit as needed with Photoshop. Finally, I resisted bashing Husband on the head for laughing at my feeble attempts, and asked him to take one. He did, and I sent it to Victoria along with a short bio. At least I didn’t wear a Holiday Sweater this time.
But I still like this picture better.

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>When she grows up, will she still bring her laundry home?

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>La Petite came home for a busy weekend: her birthday celebration, Husband’s birthday celebration, her boyfriend’s sister’s graduation, and (drumroll, please) she’s going to the Green Bay Packer game on Sunday.
To understand just how big this is, you need to know a few things.

  • This is a milestone birthday: her 21st.
  • La Petite grew up in the shadow of Lambeau Field. Literally. When she drove her boyfriend through the old neighborhood and showed him the proximity of the home to the Packers’ complex, his response was, “Wow. I always thought you were exaggerating. You weren’t.”
  • Green Bay Packer games have been sold out since the 1960s. Season tickets get passed down in wills, fought over in divorces, and in general are more vaulable than gold.
  • The Packers’ current 10-2 record (and the unspeakable possibility of a major quarterback retiring) have made single game tickets expensive and rare.
  • Her boyfriend isn’t a big football fan, and his favored team is (having a poor season) somewhere in Florida.

Well, said boyfriend made connections with his roommate’s girlfriend’s family. They own four tickets, and they’re only using two this weekend. He made them an offer, and they took it. He took a deep breath, called us, and asked if we could chip in. We said yes, absolutely. This kid is thoughtful, sweet, a major character, and he really cares about La Petite. In short, he’s family. If they break up, we might just keep him. (It’s okay, daughter, I’m kidding.)
So she came home Friday night to gather her green and gold and wrap a present for her dad. And as she walked in the door, she politely let me know, “Mom, I didn’t pack any clean clothes. Could you, like, start laundry tonight?”
Well, at least she’s old enough to bring up the laundry baskets and help.

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>Perhaps I should bake this weekend.

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>From the wellness coordinator at my place of employment (my comments are in italics):

1. If you eat a Christmas Cookie, fresh out of the oven, it has no calories because everyone knows that the first cookie is the test and thus calorie free. (Of course. If the baker can’t eat it, who can? Must test.)
2. If you drink a diet soda after eating your second cookie, it also has no calories because the diet soda cancels out the cookie calories. (But what about coffee?)
3. If a friend comes over while you are making your Christmas Cookies and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend. Because your friend’s first cookie is calories free, rule #1, yours is also. It would be rude to let your friend sample alone and being the friend that you are that makes your cookie calorie free. (Oh, heavens, I must be a good friend while baking.)
4. Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your feet and eventually fall off as you move. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass. (Gravity does enough bad things to my body; this may balance it out. No pun intended.)
5. Any calories consumed during the frosting of the Christmas Cookies will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting from a knife without cutting your tongue. (Huh? I frost with a small rubber spatula.)
6. Cookies colored red or green have very few calories. Red ones have 3 and Green ones have 5 – one calorie for each letter. Make more red ones! (If they’re plain, does that mean they have five calories or none?)
7. If you eat cookies while watching “Miracle on 34th Street” these also have no calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one’s personal fuel. (I prefer Charlie Brown Christmas. Does that count?)
8. As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breaking causes calorie leakage. (I thought it was called calorie evaporation. Well, if it works, great. Call it what you will.)
9. Any cookies consumed from someone else’s plate has no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to their plate. (Have you honestly seen cookies left on another person’s plate? If so, you need a new recipe.) And finally…
10. Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed has no calories because cookies used for medicinal purposes NEVER have calories. It’s a rule! (Does this work for the accompanying beverages as well? I sense a double peppermint mocha on the horizon.)

Disclaimer – This is your humorous stress relief for today and cookies really do have calories!!(Oh, darn it, she would have to add this! Do not eat the rocker. Do not eat the rocker.) Happy Baking!

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>Such a sacrifice for the greater good

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>Actual conversation (more or less) with Husband

Me: Dear, I found this really easy recipe for Beer Bread. In fact, it’s called Beyond Easy Beer Bread. And if I bake it, well, may I use a bottle of your beer from the fridge or should I run out to Flanagan’s and pick up something less worthy?
Him: Uh — well —
Me: Don’t worry, I’ll understand if you’d rather I left the good stuff for actual drinking.
Him: Is any special kind recommended? Like, do light or dark beers work better?
Me: This recipe doesn’t really specify. Although it’s possible that a cheapy like Badd Light probably wouldn’t work as well.
Him: I meant… well, um, okay. (Nods)
Me: Are you sure?
Him: Yes. You can take a bottle (gulp) of my beer to bake beer bread.

Well, I did promise I wouldn’t take any of his favorite specialties like New Glarus Spotted Cow or Fat Squirrel. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll have to visit a couple of local brew-pubs to get some goodies for his birthday or Christmas. Because, you know, he’s making such a sacrifice for the good of his wife’s baking. And the family’s holiday eating. And all that.

And if everyone really likes it, and I need to make a double batch next time….

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>My name is Daisy, I dress like a dork, and it’s okay.

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>I admit it. Contrary to BlogHer advice from the fashionable Susan, I wear holiday themed clothing. I do. And I wear it to work.
Regular readers know that I am willing and able to sport the Green and Gold at home and in public, from head to toe.
As for the holiday themed clothing, we elementary teachers do wear “fun” clothes to school at times. I wore a sweatshirt with an appropriate message (“I do know all the answers, but I’m sworn to secrecy”) on opening day of state testing. Every year I dig out my December clothing to wear in between Packer games. My students enjoy it, and yes, so do I.
One of my coworkers walked into the lounge last year, turned off the lights, and shimmied to show us her light-up Christmas Tree necklace. When the lights came back on, she announced with glee, “Working in an elementary school give you an excuse to dress like a dork!” We all looked down at our chests, realized it was true, and laughed out loud.
My “clients” are nine and ten years old. My room decor, or my “workspace” decor, acknowledges the season without going wild. I do not have a tree, for example, but I have a few snowy pictures and December trivia posted at key spots in the room. By recognizing the topic on their minds (Santa! Presents! Snow! Cookies! Fun!) but not going overboard, I can keep the kids relatively calm during this somewhat-frenzied month. By dressing myself in the Holiday Spirit, I let them know that it’s okay to be excited, as long as they continue to work hard and keep learning.
Don’t worry, fashionistas, I don’t plan to post pictures.
Tomorrow, I plan to wear my Grinch pin on a basic sweater (budget cuts = cold classroom on Monday mornings). Maybe I’ll slip the black socks with shiny white snowmen into my black Mary Jane shoes. Subtle? Maybe not, but it works in my field.
And dorky or not, that’s good enough for me.

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>Here’s the umbrella. Where’s the snow brush? Ice scraper, anyone?

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Yes. NaBloPoMo is over for 2007. I posted 30 consecutive days. As to prizes, there are so many bloggers enrolled that I’m not counting on winning any goodies. That’s not why I signed on. why did I sign on? Oh, the usual, the personal challenge, the slight increase in readership, the kinship with a whole batch of other bloggers crazy enough to make this commitment. You know. You don’t? Well, then you need a blog. Really. It’s fun, it’s personal, it’s serious, it’s funny, and all of the other adjectives that come from journaling online.

I’m glad it ended yesterday, if only because I had a big all-day shopping trip planned with friends and it was a bit hairy getting home in the storm. Visibility was lousy, so we stopped at opportune moments to jump out of the minivan and help the driver clear the ice off her windshield wipers. By the time we got home, we were laughing about the whole experience. It reminded us of the Chaos Fire Drills we’d play while out cruisin’ back in high school. “Ready? I’m stopping now. Go!” Then we’d run around the car and try to get back in somewhere before the light turned green. But this time, we all got back in the same seats and buckled our seat belts safely like the moms we are, even brushed off what snow we could before jumping back in the sliding side doors. To make it even more chaotic, we were doing this with our gloved/ mittened hands; she couldn’t fin her snow brush or ice scraper! She knew they were in the van somewhere, but these essential tools of winter were nowhere to be found when we needed them.

Now that we’ve taken out all the shopping bags, she’ll probably find it tomorrow, after the storm passes. All’s well that ends well, and we had a great day shopping the outlet mall. Harry and David? I think I love you. Well, your peppermint bark samples and your free coffee, anyway.

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>Every story, new or ancient…

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>The most memorable gifts are those that spark stories. The story might about the gift, the giver, or the recipient, but the story is the heart of it. Like fruitcake, it’s the piece that gets remembered, long after the holiday itself is gone.
Like fruitcake, the gift isn’t always fancy. One of my favorite Teacher Gifts was a gift card to a garden center in town. this student and his parents knew enough about that they went beyond the World’s Best Teacher coffee mug (which would’ve been nice, too) and addressed one of my favorite activities: digging in the dirt.
Many years ago, one of my dad’s idols (Bart Starr) published an autobiography. I stood in line for two hours to get it autographed, and it was worth every minute. My dad was notoriously hard to buy for, and this was perfect — and he let me read it when he was done.
A student gave me this cute little popsicle stick sculpture. I’ll always remember her when I see it because she finished gluing it together at the last minute in class…much like the way she did homework!
So you see, it really is the thought that counts. All the students who have given me coffee mugs or Green Bay Packer ornaments are in my memory because of the stories their gifts inspire. As my little snowman insisted (below), I did, indeed, have a very merry Christmas.


This post inspired by the Parent Bloggers Network and their Blog Blasts, and Excitations, a site designed to make gift giving fun and memorable for givers and receivers alike.

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>funday — Thursday?

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>Reasons I predict the Packers to win tonight:

  • Favre hasn’t won yet in Dallas. It’s time. (Remember KC? Same thing.)
  • Youth and good health (receiving corps) + Experience (quarterback) = Win
  • Al Harris vs. T.O. — Harris is all talent, no ego. ‘Nuff said.
  • Packers are looking much better than they did at Chicago, their only loss.
  • Mason Crosby’s kicks have come through in a pinch — several pinches, in fact.
  • Tony Romo grew up idolizing Brett Favre. Beat his idol? No way.
  • And the final reason: It’s just a game, after all. And the Packers enjoy it and play it very, very well.

And as to the other “game” tonight, the NFL Network vs. Home Town Fans: we’ll leave the outcome to you, executives. But remember: Lambeau Field has been sold out for decades, not just years. We don’t even know what television blackouts are in Wisconsin. Packer fans have gone to the legislature, for heaven’s sake, to preserve their right to watch the games.
So without further ado, I’m going to pop a pizza in the oven and reach for my cheesehead.

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