Holiday Parties

Oh how the tables have turned this holiday season. I remember last year attending Christmas cocktail with my sorority, Christmas formal with a fraternity, Teaching Fellow holiday social, etc, etc. In college the holidays brought lots of fun events to dress up and socialize. It was also the time to have a little fun before buckling down for Exams, getting busy studying, then celebrating exams being OVER.  Not anymore my friends.. the tables have turned. 

I am now spending my Christmas big girl real world style. Cramming for exams has been replaced with progress monitoring kiddos at school and watching Alvin float around our room. 

Christmas cocktails have been replaced with holiday parties on week nights. Where the drink specials were once the highlight of the evening in college, parties have transformed into the delicious food becoming the highlight of the party. 

The Holidays have been just as much fun if not more fun that last year! It's funny to think how different things are though. 

My roommate hosted a Christmas party Sunday night that was complete with appetizers, dinner, games, prizes, and girl talk. We had SO much fun with all girls and tacky Christmas  sweaters. I'm so sad I didn't take more pictures of the night but I did grab a few. I also ended the night winning several prizes  including some lilly pulitzer and a new throw blanket.  

A couple of the girls and I 

One of the games- a race to blow ballons, stuff them in panty hoes, 

put them on your head and sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

I went to another Christmas party with the girls I work with Tuesday night. I'm lucky to work with a very young group of girls around my age. I only got one picture of some of the food.

This really did not capture even half of the food but I'm sure you can imagine(: 

I am now ready for Christmas break so I can celebrate the holidays out of school! (there are 7days, or 5 school days left.. I'm not counting or anything,ha) 

Elf on the Shelf

Christmas is such a fun time of the year in and out of the classroom. In first grade we have been doing so many fun Christmas activities! Gingerbread science, Gingerbread man story elements, Reindeer research, letters to Santa .. you get the drift. Well I decided to play along with the Elf on the Shelf phenomenon. For those of you who don't know the story it goes a little something like this.

This is the Elf on the Shelf

He is sent by Santa to watch children throughout the day. He uses his special Elf Magic to fly back to the North Pole while you are sleeping to tell Santa how you are being. Throughout the day he sometimes gets into mischievous like this:

 or this: 

There are only 2 rules you must remember. You must name him immediately, and you can NOT touch him. This is VERY important because if you touch him he looses all of his special magic and can't fly back to the North Pole to tell Santa about all of the wonderful things you have done. 

.. Well we have an Elf on the shelf in first grade. His name is Alvin and he has been in our room for a whole 2 days. One of my kids got the bright idea to test out rule number 2-- (no touching). During math centers Alvin was poked and low and behold the world ended. I kid you not. The world must have ended. ..Or that's what my kids thought at least. No they did not care that I wanted to teach them to tell time. Of course not, who would?! They cared that poor little Alvin just lost all of his magic power and Santa would not be able to know about what they were doing anymore. 

Bound and determined to throw a little common core into the end of the world I thought it would be appropriate to write letters to Santa explaining what happened, promising to never touch him again and asking to please give Alvin his magic back. 

What to do, what to do. I honestly don't know. 

I'm thinking Alvin will be in his same spot tomorrow. (obviously, he has no magic) I'm sending the letters to Santa tonight, hopefully he will write us back with a solution. Fingers crossed!

If I had all the time in the world

Wow, what a start to December.. we had 70 degree weather in my part of town yesterday! I think today is going to be comparable. I get cold VERY easy so I welcome warm weather anytime. 

Since I entered real life/big girl world in August I have come to realize there simply are not enough hours in the day. My job takes up a lot of my time... and when I say a lot I mean too much. I'm not complaining though, I sometimes choose to stay late and get extra "stuff" done. This leaves me very little free time however. I recently started thinking about the question: what would I do if I had all the time in the world?

If I had all the time in the world I would.. 

1. Read all of the book sitting by my bed, then find more. 

I'm currently reading this: 

I like it so far however it's taking a while to get through because of this whole not enough hours in the day dilemma. 

2. Cook .. REAL food, that can't be made in 30 minutes or less

3. Spend more time on lesson plans, centers, school work 

crazy right.. I already spend most of my day doing this but it's still impossible to get everything done. 

4. travel, of course! 

5. Get a full 8 hours of sleep (or maybe even 9 if we're getting crazy) each night

I'm sure there are many more things I would like to do if time isn't an issue but unfortunately it is and I have to get to work(: Happy Tuesday friends!