Jingle Bell Rock

JB and The Boy rocked it out in the 4th grade Christmas concert. Sorry about the picture quality, I was way in the back.

Celebrate the Season

We attended Dad's Work Christmas Party, an annual event that is held at USU's beautiful Alumni House. The meal was catered by Hamilton's Restaurant and was deliscious! Mom's favorite was the candy cane cheesecake. YUM! It was interesting to me how many people said how JB was looking more and more like me every day. It was funny how that startled me a bit. I have never been one of those "girly" girls. You know the kind. The ones who can be given a garbage bag or old sheet and will tuck it here, and fold it there and VIOLA! a gorgeous 3 piece holidy outfit complete with sequins! I don't know how they do it. JB does. She just knows how to put together an outfit and make it look fantastic and in my opinion is absolutely stunningly beautiful. More than that though, she has a sunshine that pours from her soul, creating little pockets of happiness all around her. To be told that she looks like me....well that to me is the best complement ever, to know that in some way, I look like her.

Hosanna

DSCF0021, originally uploaded by tlcbull2.

The St. John's Children's Choir wrote this beautiful Christmas song with the help of Nancy griffin from the Utah Opera Company's Opera for Children. This is rehearsal video, but they are still great!
Merry Christmas!

Thoughts of Christmas

Well. Amazingly Christmas is here already. I haven't gotten used to the idea that JB is back in school after summer break and BOOM it's Christmas. I must admit I am not feeling very festive this year. I always look foreward to that time of year when the Christmas carols start playing on the radio and that warm tingle shoots through my spine saying at last the Holidays are back. It's that little tingle that usually has me playing Christmas Cds around August, preparing Christmas parties and making shopping lists, etc. This year... I got nothin'. I did put up a tree though, only because Jb asked me to. No parties are planned. No carmel corn, lollipops or slush is made. Honestly, only 5 gifts are purchased, some are wrapped. oh well. Maybe tomorrow....

Bon Jour!

Greetings!

Well we are back from our France trip and JB has worked hard to get mostly caught up on her homework. She is an amazing kid and has had a great attitude about doing her extra work. Dad ended up having to work more than we thought, so some of our exploring days were edited, leaving us to visit some attractions we hadn't planned on seeing originally. We visited a bunch of old churches and abbeys, went to a tiny little zoo, and visited a real castle. Mom shot over 750 images, some of which may be seen at her flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tlcbull

CRAZY!

Today we practiced spelling words by writting them in puffy finger paint. It was CRAZY (one of the words). This finger paint is really fun and easy to make.

Ingredients: Equal parts liquid school glue and shaving cream, food coloring if desired.

Mix together. Squish, gush, streak, laugh. Get some in your hair. (It's ok it will wash out.)

Let dry over night

That's it.

We spread the paint onto the paper and used old pencils to write the words in the paint. It dries to a puffy rubber like sheen, and we can still see the words! The table cleaned up nicely and the kitchen smells minty fresh.

Schooling vs Education

"I have never let my schooling get in the way of my education"- Mark Twain

We told JB's teacher about our up coming trip to France, and instead of being excited for us, she explained to me how important it was that we schedule vacation times for when school is not in session because of all of the content that will be missed when we are gone. I told her we would be happy to make up any missing assignments, read books to catch up etc. I asked if JB could have her assignments ahead of time so she could complete them before we left, and the teacher told me "No" because she doesn't know EXACTLY what she will be teaching on each day. So instead of giving us the assignments early, she will put all the missing assignments in a folder to be completed upon our return. We will "just have to make them up after your fun vacation."

True our vacation will be fun. However, I feel the teacher is missing the point. Jb will practice speaking French, in France. She will eat escargot and pastries and tour the Eiffel Tower.
She will sleep in a castle http://www.holiday1.net/Cristallin.htm,
She will attend a science center based theme park http://www.futuroscope.com/eng/index.php
She will pay her respects at the historic town of Oradour where hundreds were killed in a massacre of World War Two. http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/ora_tour/oradour.html

Or she could stay home and work on another word search...