Now that Christmas is over

I've had some time to get things done.

Christmas gifts for neighbors. I don't think I've ever gotten these out before Christmas. I'm just so darn busy before Christmas, I never have time to do anything nice...not to mention I'm not in the mood to do anything nice, either. I try to get them done before New Year's. It's kind of like the Christmas newsletter, right? No one really expects you to get that out before Christmas anyway.

At any rate, I made bread again this year. The bread turned out really well, and this is the first year of me baking bread for the neighbors that we actually had some left over for us. I don't know why I don't make bread more often. It's not that hard, and it's so yummy! Here's the strange part to that--I made bread for myself (and never bought any) my entire freshmen year of college. I can't believe I did that! Since then, I've just bought Great Harvest or Old Grist Mill bread out of convenience, and maybe a little bit of laziness, too. Huh.

I've also had time to break out my tatting again. Last summer, Ryan and I were in a bookstore and found a couple of tatting books. One of them had patterns for snowflakes. Ryan suggested I make snowflakes for the family for Christmas. I suggested that we think of a different gift, because I had a snowflake's chance in ... of getting that done by Christmas. I bought the books though, and have found that making snowflakes is strangely addicting. I've done lace before, and that's a project the never ends. Tatting is very slow, and takes about 10 times the time it would take to crochet a similar item. With a snowflake though, it's pretty easy to get it done relatively quickly and feel like you've accomplished something. Maybe next year's Christmas...

I have also found a tasty way to use leftover turkey. This is a turkey salad with a dressing made from cranberry salsa and olive oil. It's basically blue corn chips, chopped Romaine, turkey, avocado pieces (unless you are Ryan), black beans, grated mozzarella and the dressing. Tasty!

Just a side note: Ever wondered how to clean chicken poop off the back patio in the winter when the outside water is turned off? Wait for it to snow, and then it scoops right off. We've thought about sanding down the patio and using a push-broom, but it's always snowed before we've actually gotten that far. Good thing it's snowed lately.

The 50% Rule

You would think I'd have figured out by now that the 50% rule always wins when it comes to figuring out how many people are actually going to show up to an event. Case in point: yesterday's Silent Lunch.

In an effort to help my students get opportunities to use their sweet signing skills at times other than just classroom stuff, I've tried to organize after school activities. I decided to give Silent Lunch a shot, passed around a sign-up sheet and had about 30 kids (minus the student who wrote in three other students' names) sign up to come. I ordered pizza, and wanted to make sure I had enough for everyone, especially since I was charging them $2 for lunch. What was I thinking? Anyway, when all was said and done, I had two pizzas left over, and ended up spending more than I collected from the 16 kids who came to lunch. My student aid during 8th period didn't mind a bit though... "Hey, can I have some pizza?" Me: "Knock yourself out. Want another slice?" Him: "Do you mean it?" Repeat 4 times.

Things got off to a rough start when the pizza delivery man came with a different total than the one I had been given over the phone. I had the check made out yesterday, and had to run back to my room for an extra $2. Came back huffing and puffing (stairs) gave him the $2, and watched as the secretary pulled another $5 out of her wallet to give him for a tip. Oops! Forgot about that. Ran back upstairs, two bags of drinks, chips and salad in hand (I had two slaves...I mean students...with me to carry the pizza), and had about 1 minute before lunch started to get things set up. At this opportune moment, Girl Who Never Comes to Class and Doesn't Pay Attention When She Does Come wanted to find out what we've done in class all week. I'm out of breath after running to the office twice, and have my arms full of lunch. After I tell her what we did this week, she wants to know why she has an F. At this point, I tell her, "This is a really bad time to talk about this. Come back later." What I really feel like telling her is, "Do you honestly wonder why you have an F when you don't complete any assignments when you ARE here? Oh, and you stare at the ground when I'm SHOWING you how to sign the vocabulary I have listed on the board. Unless you have eyes on the top of your head, there's no way on earth you will pick up anything we are learning if you don't look."

Back to lunch. I didn't want this to be a "silent lunch" in the way we had "silent lunch" as a kid--punishment for being too noisy in the lunch room. My goal was to have the students come in and, well, chat in ASL during lunch. I had a student who was in charge of organizing an activity for lunch. Her activity consisted of going around the table, say your name and something you want for Christmas. This was accomplished in about 2 minutes, and then they sat and stared at each other in silence while they ate for another 15 minutes. Not quite what I had in mind. Sigh.

Thanksgiving fun

Ryan and I went to Denver to spend some time with my parents. We had a good time! Here are some highlights from our trip:

The Thanksgiving Parade
Upon our arrival, each of us received a hand-written invitation from Rebekah to watch a Thanksgiving parade the next morning.



One of the mornings, I found Ryan with an audience. They kept him there for a good hour, reading story after story.

Andrew:
The delightful, bald baby we saw last June has gotten more charm (if possible), and a little more hair. He has discovered that pounding on things is fun. One night, Dad got out a drum to see what Andrew thought.