Presents

Last night's program went very well. There were a few hiccups, but overall it was great. So many people passed out compliments. Three people said it's the best program they've ever seen, ever, in all their time at Immanuel. Two of those people were crying when they told our principal. Many parents said they're still thinking about it today, and many others said they can't wait to come back and see it again Sunday.

It was hard to focus at practice today, well all day really. Everyone was just too excited to open presents! Including me! I think I talked about what I made them for Christmas in another post, but just in case, here's a refresher... in Writers' Workshop, they made a list of adjectives of each other and I compiled each student's adjectives secretly into a Wordle (or a word cloud) and printed off a fancy picture, wrote one of my favorite Bible verses on it, stuck it in a frame, and wrapped them all in brown paper.

The day I put them under the tree, of course they noticed right away, and they were curious who was giving all the brown presents out. Hmm, let's see, there are 11 of them and they're all about the same size... who could it be? Then they all tried to guess what was in the package.  They know in past years I give them a copy of their NaNo books, and the frames are a similar shape to a book, so at first glance all of them thought it was a book. But they weren't sold on that idea because they haven't edited their books yet. Then they thought I had somehow gotten my hands on the 8th Amulet book. It doesn't come out until sometime in 2018... there isn't even a cover yet, so that wasn't a possibility.

I couldn't wait to see my students' reactions to their presents, and I wasn't disappointed. They wanted to open their presents from me first (couldn't stand the suspense I guess!), so I passed them out with strict instructions NOT to say anything out loud if they had a guess what it was once they felt them. A few of them could tell it was a picture frame. The paper ripped off and...
"Wow!"
"I love it!"
"It's so cool!"
"I'm going to keep it forever!"
They couldn't stop smiling and neither could I! Half of them jumped up to give me a hug (even the boys) and the ones whose parents were still at school (they'd been serving the school lunch) ran off to the kitchen to show off their frame to their parents. Most of them set their frames up on their desks to be admired by all and they kept reading their adjectives over and over and over again. "It's the best Christmas EVER!"

My presents were good this year too. Six students went in together on a present and gave me a 31 bag with an embroidered cross on the front. It's the perfect size for books! Inside the bag were about six boxes of tea, mostly peppermint and orange spice. One of those students had sneakily found out my favorite flavors of tea by telling me her mom wanted to start drinking tea and did I have any kinds I liked the best and would recommend? Ha, I suspected nothing! Today I asked her if her mom was really going to start drinking tea and she revealed that, no, it had all been a ruse. So tricky! They also went in on a Kohl's gift card for $50 in a cute little snowman box. Wow! Other things I got: candy, a candle, lotion, soft socks, a water bottle cup thing, and an Avon set of three lotions.

The teacher gift exchange was fun too. Like my students, the teachers write down two initials of something they want and their exchange partner has to guess what those letters stand for. I had Mr. D who wanted CN. That was a tough one... chicken nuggets? carmel nougats? cat nibbles? Christmas neckties? I went with the last option and found the perfect tie right in the price range. It's red with a black silhouette of the nativity scene and little angels and stars going up the length of the tie. He did indeed want a Christmas necktie, so I guessed right!

My letters were KM, which stands for kitchen mat. I want one to go in front of my sink to stand on while I do dishes. Mr. E had me and he guessed knitted mittens. Not right, but still something I could use! Yesterday Mrs. E swung by my room to ask if there was anything else she could do for the Christmas program, but really she was their to scope out my coat to see what color of mittens her husband should get me! They match well; white with light blue mixed in. I think I'll wear them on my drive home!

Well, my room is all tidy. Everything is in it's place and ready for a week off. I have all my papers corrected and my only homework over break is to look over my lesson plans for the three day week we'll have after coming back. I still have some thank-you notes to write, but I can get them done today or tomorrow. The only thing left is to decide whether to bring tortoise Joe home with me tonight or bring him back after the Christmas program Sunday night...