Counting down to....

What year is it? Ah, I can see it clearly....

Happy New Year everyone!

Arting around

After the excitement of the family holiday came the pleasure of a family outing - off to Indianapolis for the exhibit: Roman Art from the Louvre We wandered for hours among statuary and artifacts
marvelled at the detail and complexity of these surviving antiquities
noted the festive themes that echoed our own celebration (although we did forego the animal sacrifice)At last we found a seat to rest, drink and reflect.

And to wonder where everyone else was.

Traditions

If it's Christmas... there has to be a picture of Will wearing something funny on his head...
Granddad with something exotic....
someone getting exactly what she wanted....
someone getting a theme present...
and the usual exciting portrayal of the results of receiving presents of books.

That's the breaks

Holding the pinkie finger out while drinking my tea? That's not affectation... just a fractured finger.

Merry Christmas

When the house is full of friends and family and food and festivity, your blogger finds herself doing and enjoying....and not blogging. Suffice it to say, a good (if exhausting) time was had by all...

Things start happening

Yes, the Bloomingtonauts have arrived! Safe and sound from Florida, just in time for a few snowflakes in the cold air - should have remembered that coat, E!

And W. is down from Indy for last minute shopping and something warm to eat.

Dr. Hausfrau and family are on this side of the ocean and on their way.

Time to debate the serious holiday questions: What to get for Grandad? What for Mimi? and Who gets the upstairs bedroom?

A little music and then on to the traditional Christmas Eve panic - cookies to make! cards to send! party to prepare! gifts to finish and wrap!

and Good Wishes to send to all you faithful readers:
Merry Christmas to all!

Mass Production

After an intense evening of carving and printing The Christmas woodpeckers are winging their way around the country.

Guts

If you need to give a hands on demonstration of the digestive system, who you gonna call?

Stuffee, that's who. It took four preschoolers to haul out his intestines and drag them across the floor.

They all found digestion a fascinating topic for Discovery Time - spit! burps! poop! -

and they got to eat crackers and clementines as part of the demonstration.

On the evaluation forms afterwards I read that the moms thought that "manners" would be a good topic.

O Tannen-boom

The tree was perfect. We set it up by the fireplace and I began to decorate. It took me one whole day to get the lights on, each one carefully positioned. Yesterday morning I began putting on the ornaments. I started with the large golden balls towards the inside. I put little glass tidbits under the dove on top. I took out the sweet handpainted glass balls and the ones with sequins from my childhood. I hung the slightly tarnished clear ball with tinsel inside from T's childhood. I put on the seriously tarnished silver ball from my mother's childhood. I smiled at the funny ornaments that have joined the collection over the years - the turnip, the pickle, the garlic, the blue hippopotamus.

Then I started to hang the little "finishers" on the tips of the branches.
And, with a horrible smashing sound, the tree flung itself down and threw all those delicate things across the floor.
I sobbed a little.
Then collected....
the shards of Christmas.

O Tannenbaum

Out at the tree farm on Tuesday we find the perfect Christmas tree. The sky is overcast and the wind is sloughing through the long needles of the white pines. Our tree is expertly cut
and carried to the waiting truck.
After it is shaken and wrapped, it fits in the trunk of the car. Sort of. We still drive home with great caution.
Granddad wonders: Can this shrunken thing really be that tall beautiful tree?

Snow goons

When you do a program on Snowmen and there isn't any snow, you have to do something.

So our snowmen are built from marshmallows(yum) and held together with icing.
It's a good thing I took pictures.
Just like the real snowmen, these guys didn't last long.

Finals

For their final, my students have to give a program for childcare kids. We never know exactly how many kids will be in the group or their ages or experiences. The idea is that my students show that they can apply some of the skills they've read about and discussed this semester.

So the first group arrives at the daycare room. There are four kids there. One has wedged herself into a corner between the bookcase and the wall. She doesn't come out. Two are flipping themselves off the couch backwards. I worry about their necks. One sits quietly looking at the students with big round eyes. A listener? About 5 minutes into their presentation he announces, "I'm done" and excapes.

This is a tough crowd.

Casing the halls

Now the harvest is taken in.

Let the Winter fun begin!

Our regular lizard commentator is not only out of place in this chilly scene, he's also the only one there who knows what the theme for the month really is. Look for a December display of science and futuristic fiction in the library - "What is the World Coming to?"

Coyotes

This week I've been telling "porquoi" stories to 4th graders. One of my stories features that wonderful trickster Coyote. The classes are skeptical when I tell them that coyotes live right across the road from me, but it's true. I rarely see them, but often hear the group in full cry. You can hear what they sound like at http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/coyote.html.

Socks is transformed when the coyotes are howling. She races to the door and barks impatiently. Once outside she dashes (well, as much as a Corgi can dash) to the fence. She barks, she yips, she howls like a hound as she dances around. Her little front feet lift off the ground with the intensity of her howls.

What are they saying to her? What is she saying back? Does she think she could go run with the coyotes? Does she know she'd be a tasty tidbit for them?

I'm practicing my own yips and yowls. I want to be part of the story.

No natural defrost

What strange science-fiction-ish transformation is taking place in the pond?

Strangely shaped ice covers the creeping jenny.

Slowly the sides of the waterfall are being frozen under a thick layer of ice.

Rocks and leaves show through the clear cover of ice, that then cascades down to the stream in chunks like ice cubes.

In fact, my freezer used to look like this before we got the new refrigerator.

December 5th

Here's a traditional rhyme to teach your children...
Please to remember

the 5th of December

Gunpowder, treason and plot!

I see no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Ever should be forgot.



Happy Guy Fawkes Day, everyone!