Chapter 424

'Tis the week to wear our ugly Christmas sweaters. This is the one I wore to work on Ugly Sweater Day. Although I have plenty of original 80's ugly sweaters, I was ready for a new one. I got one with a llama on it for Reagan too so we can match.

My days include a ton of variety most other classes don't come across (except for maybe Kyanne's). One of my student's ripped her leather jacket on a sharp piece of metal. Since she has no home life, so I assumed #1) she'd be in big trouble, and #2) it would never get repaired. That meant that I needed to get my needle and thread out and get it sewed up before class was out. Normally, when repairs are needed, I teach the student to fix their own button or tears. Since this was leather I did the job myself. If I may say so myself, it turned out great!

I have been running the yule log screen saver on my computer all week and it made a cozy place to sit and sew. My desk is the nerve center of the classroom, I have the surveillance camera monitor, ear plugs, rubber stamps, Band-Aids, hall passes, forks, tea bags, and everything else anyone might need.

I came home on a sunny afternoon and took Nitro out for a walk. He likes to walk the yard and I like to listen to my book. Happy happy for everyone. Some of his favorite activities is to sit on branches and survey his kingdom, eat grass and barf. 

Friday was ugly sweater day and I wore my llama sweater. Kurt wore his Christmas elf sweater. Everyone is so used to seeing him in his black shop uniform and when he showed up in this sweater, the kids were totally thrown for a loop. It's hard to respect a shop teacher when he's trying to look authoritative with his elf shirt on.

While last minute projects were finished in the shop, we set up for a party in the classroom. I make mashed potatoes and gravy by special request each year. These go over amazingly well (even at 8:00 in the morning) for whatever reason and the kids just can't get enough of them. It's also a cheap way to make something filling and warm.

One of my projects this year was to make coasters from wood and cut-out cork with my Silhouette. Unfortunately, I got thin wood instead of cork from my mail order so that put a crimp in my coaster plan. Here's one I did get done for Mary Lou. She's my test subject. This one turned out better than the first one I made. There was not as much contrast between the cork and the wood as I had hoped.

Grammy and Grampy Walker from Maine have come to visit Carissa and Chris and mainly Reagan for Christmas. Reagan just loves having another set of readers in the bullpen.

Reagan reading books at the Boeing Airplane Museum. She's a lot like her Auntie Kyanne in that she likes to read books, books that are non-fiction, above her reading/interest level, and non-traditional. She's quite the reader for a 3 year old.

 Reagan like to ready while Mom is in the shower. You can see her trail of books. It may look messy, but her Momma's clean.

Reagan bolts her truck together in Carissa's closet while Mozzy supervises the job.

Today we went out Geocaching for a new one on the college trails. It was a nice day for walking about the woods looking for a little box.

Speaking of Geocaching, one of our travel bugs finally went international! Our little American coin is on Phuket Island in Thailand. Oddly enough I brought an abandoned t-shirt home from school that was from Phuket Island. 

This is the entry in the travel bug's log: Here is your bug's view. Seemed like a very safe cache to rest until hopefully grabbed by another long distance traveller. Merry Christmas from Kamala Beach, Phuket Island, Thailand. Notice the name of the island. 

Christmas eve we went to Carissa's house. It's a magical thing when family comes from all over the United States (Maine, California, & Auburn) to be together. Here Jennie and Reagan make cookies to leave out for Santa.

Showing off my ugly sweater and beautiful daughter.

We had steady snow and when juuust enough had accumulated, we all went out and watched the kids play in the snow. Chris being a Mainer, had to bust the sled out right away. Luckily they have a septic tank hill to slide on in their front yard.

Bear loves the snow and it landed on it and started to turn him white too.

The cousins got to sled together. How much fun is that? The Mainer Grammy and Grampy really enjoyed themselves. I'm sure it took them back to other fun times with their own little kids.

By the time we left for our hotel at The Point Casino, a couple of inches of snow had fallen. You can see the tracks on the sledding hill are all covered up already.

This is the view from our hotel room. We left to go to check out the casino and while we were gone some dufus plowed into a light pole in the middle of the empty parking lot and had to be take out in an ambulance. You can see the action in the far end of the parking lot. Almost the coolest thing that happened here except

me winning a quick $70 in the casino! It was a video game that had a screen about 3 feet tall and had surround sound speakers on the keyboard and on each side of the captain's chair for surround sound. Every time I won money or the dragon on the screen stomped his feet, my chair shook. It was total coolness. 

Tomorrow morning we'll be back to the kid's to see what Santa has in store for Reagan and William.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!