A rant about new years...

Dear New Year's Eve 2010,

I'm not into 'low key'....

I want hustle and bustle.
I want romance.
I want super ridiculous fun.
I want surprises.
I want drama and suspense.
I want laughing and games.
I want sex appeal, from the guys and the girls...suit up, put on your best dresses.
I want noisemakers and partyhats.
I want champagne, the kind that sprays the entire room.
I want to be surrounded by my favorite people.
I want to get my rocks off.
I want this to be the hap-hap-happiest night of the year.
Entertain me.

Please don't be the biggest flop' of the year, as far as holidays go.

Your ever-loving-girl,
NellieMae

White Christmas

Happy Christmas Eve!

Just spent the evening rushing from family to family, trying to get as much 'Christmas' time in with each one and tomorrow will be more of the same.

Now I am home. In my penguin pjs. Watching an old movie, White Christmas. I am enjoying all of the vintage style of this movie...not to mention the singing and the dancing--wow! I can't believe I've never seen it before.

 Look at those legs--wowzers!

The snow has missed us this year...so I won't be waking up to a white Christmas this year. At least I have the movie. ;-)

Those first five photos on facebook...

I may not have mentioned it yet...but I set up a photo booth at the Christmas party. And made these black and white signs for people to hold. The backdrop was a striped sheet and red ribbons. The photos look better in black and white because of the yellow-ish lighting in the room.

Anyway...I don't know if you have noticed it, but on Facebook...there are five photos of the most recently tagged of you at the top of your profile page. Color Me Katie had a great idea to customize them. And I thought it was a fabulous idea!!

And I thought you might like to see the pictures too!!

Happy Wednesday! I am FINALLY on break...well...I will be after 1:00 today!

Merry Christmas an eye chart!

Check out this cool eye chart.
You can customize it to make it your own!!

Living in my Christmas Room {2}

This is my favorite time of year. My living room has been 'Buddy-the-Elf-ed'....the ceiling covered in paper chains, paper snowflakes and white twinkling lights. Its not quite as covered as the ceiling in the store that he re-made over night...but its really pretty!

Been spending lots of time watching Christmas movies, drinking hot tea, and playing scrabble with a fire going. It great having all my favorite people over to play games and eat snacks...like nachos...This is my favorite time of year!

Classroom stories and an apron

I'm back.
Like for real...I'm back. My student teacher is basically done so I have all my old responsibilities 100% now. Its a little lonely, but I'm getting by.

It is the week before Christmas break...so the kids are as wild as ever. Its amazing how many crazy things you hear in one day. A boy saluted me today 'Yes Captain,' he said.

Another boy, talking to some girls at his table said that his parents allowed him to watch rated R movies. I was assisting the group with cleaning or something when he leaned in and asked ME if I knew what 'nudity' was....I said 'What?!' I wasn't entirely sure I had heard him correctly but he repeated, "Do you know what nudity means? Its like NAKED, he half-whispered.' I replied, 'Young man, I know what nudity is, and its not an appropriate conversation so I suggest you stop talking about those rated R movies before I call your parents and let them know what you've been talking about during art.' He replied with a sincere, "yes ma'am."

 Today, I sat watching my students coloring...normally, I am circulating...moving around giving suggestions, tossing around praise and redirecting student behavior...but this week, I won't matter how many times I say 'Do your best coloring' or 'Maybe you could add this here, or that there'....I will get an ample number of 'I don't want to' or 'I'm leaving it like this' responses...not matter what I suggest...So I am releasing the reigns a bit. Relaxing, lest I get stressed.

Anyway, a student came up and told me that the day after tomorrow she gets to go to her dad's for Christmas. Whispering and hugging her hands up under her chin she said, "And I'm going to sneak up on Santa!" And then she looked at me...and gave me a huge hug. And I gave her my widest, happiest eyes and smile...and said, "but you don't want to ruin the magic?!" And she said whispering with delight, "We are going to sneak up on Santa...stay up really late...my whole family...we are going to hide behind the couch!" And then she gave me another hug and skipped off back to her seat.

Christmas really is magical. Kids do make Christmas more special...and I am totally in favor of prolonging the magic of Santa for as long as possible. I'm just ready for a vacation. Let Santa take over...and let me rest.

My student teacher graduated Saturday.
I made her a birthday+christmas+graduation+thanksforbeingawesome gift. A gift card to a local teacher store...some Lisa Frank stickers for her classroom...and an apron made with Ikea fabric to wear in her classroom. Its white...and I know it will get dirty...but the fabric was too cute not to use.

Big pockets...and a big orange ruffle.
I might have to make one for myself!

How is your week going?

Christmas Traditions-YUM!

My family has a tradition of making Christmas candy every year. Traditions are my favorite, especially YUMMY ones!! The first Saturday in December we mad candy for this year--it is hard to stay away from all the sweets.

Happy Hump Day!

Living in my Christmas room.

I just love Christmas time.

Christmas Party Extravaganza!!!

Annual Christmas party is tonight. 

Plans have been in the works for weeks. 

I set up a photo booth in my spare bedroom, this is the backdrop, I am super excited about it, can you tell?

(Yes, I was wearing penguin jammies when I tested it out!)

I have tons of awesome props available for my guests to take pictures in front of the camera--reindeer ears, santa hats, bows, lights, ugly sweaters, signs with things like 'naughty' 'nice' 'grinch' and 'Merry Christmas' printed on them so that people can hold them up.

I hope everyone is as excited as I am!!

The theme is 'Saturday Night Live' so I hope my friends are working on some amazing skits!

I'll share more photos soon!!

Its starting to look a lot like Christmas!

The weeks leading up to Christmas are always my favorite. Sometimes they can be stressful, but I actually enjoy preparing for Christmas more than Christmas Eve/Day....it seems like the actual holiday is so packed with family and running from one family event to another, sometimes its hard to relax and enjoy the day.

Last year I started putting pictures on my tree, but I actually remember one year, I made stockings for my family with pictures glued on them. Photos are an important part of my holiday, I enjoy looking at them and thinking about my family and friends.

Hello, its cold!

Greetings from the art room.

I try to keep my Amazon listmania list up-to-date with my favorite art books. There are just some books that are so fun to read out loud to kids, I end up reading them every year.

I thought it would be fun to share some of my list with you.

Click here to go straight to my annotated list of favorite books on Amazon.com. 

The pictures below aren't hyperlinked...jut screenshots.

Hope you are having a great week! I would love to see your favorite childrens lit books...if you have  blog post or have listed your favorites elsewhere, please leave a link in the comments!

Happy December 1st!

This photo was taken Christmas morning last December. I remember waking up to a beautiful new fallen snow!

I was so excited that I grabbed my Holga and ran outside to take pictures.

 

I hope we get lots more snow this year, it makes for great lomography!

I am so happy that it is December 1st.

I am on top of things this year.

I mean like REALLY on top of things.

My Christmas cards went in the mail yesterday. That's right, I hand-stamped and made each one (over 60), added a photo, hand-addressed the envelopes, and had them ready to be mailed weeks ago. 

The cards for my co-workers are ready to be distributed too!

My Christmas candy recipes are printed, most of the ingredients are already purchased and I am ready for a fun day of treat making this Saturday. 

My Christmas party is planned. The invites are already sent out. I'm preparing some of the treats this Saturday (a week in advance). I just need to finalize my costume (that's right, it is themed-- SNL Christmas!) and prepare a few more menu items. 

I ordered my gift for the gift exchange today so as soon as it comes I can wrap it and be ready.

Oh, and I need to put a few more decorations up.  

I want to make some more paper chains, but I have a few in the works.

The Christmas tree has been up for a couple of weeks already. 

I even added a mini-tree with vintage ornaments on the porch this year. 

The lights are on the house. 

Most of my gifts are wrapped and under the tree. (not all, but most)

I have a few more hand-made gifts to start/finish but I am excited about my progress. 

I am burning all of our old VHS home movies, from when we were little, on to DVDs for my brother. 

I created a photo book for the ladies in my family.

I want to sew an apron for my student teacher to wish her well in the future. Her birthday and graduation are in a couple of weeks. 

I plan to make my mom a photo memorabilia box. 

My December Daily is ready today!! YIPPEEE! I prepared the main album weeks ago, just need to start taking pictures and journaling. 

Today's blog post will be part of that journaling.

It feels nice to look at my list of things that are done. 

I'm going to be selective this year about what I do/don't do. 

I'm going to take time to savor family traditions. And maybe make a few new ones.

I'm going to spend more time gazing at the tree. 

I'm going to eat fewer 'junk' snacks and focus really enjoying the 'seasonal' ones that are only around once a year....like fudge...and maybe some eggnog.

I'm going to (hopefully) drive around and look at lights.

I'm going to tape more videos.

I'm going to enjoy.

And savor.

And read. 

I am currently reading Bill Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life.

And swim.

Scuba classes started last night...working towards certification.

And keep the stress out of Christmas Eve, everyone celebrates at the same time, its hard to visit everyone that day!

I am so happy that it is December. 

I hope to be a better blogger this month, it will help my December Daily if I am vigilant with my journaling.

Bring on the holidays!! I am ready!