Awaiting the New Year

So I was thinking...that this new year is going to bring fun times ahead.  I am also excited about 2012 because:

1. I get to spread the word of the Lord in the Philippines this summer for two weeks!

2. I hear the second half of the year is the best time for teaching!

3. Two of my best friends are getting married this summer!

Follow Cat's journey at Southern Sweetness.  

But before the New Year commences and my Auburn Tigers play the Virginia Cavaliers I thought I would remember the past couple of weeks. I apologize that my blogging has been sporadic but, December is a very hectic time in a teacher's life. So here is a life review and teaching review. 

I don't know what I would have done without Cara from The First Grade Parade this year. She has shared so many amazing ideas that have brought smiles to my kids faces. We made some 3D snowmen for our parent's Christmas gifts. Here are our snowmen before we added scarves and hats. We also wrote across the top "There's Snow Place Like Home."

We wrote about what would happen if Santa got stuck in the chimney and also What would make a Grinch smile. My favorite Santa chimney said that If Santa got stuck he would try to jump on his feet and then he would call the plumbers! We also made these cute reindeer books!

We then had a Christmas Craft rotations where we made: Rudolph the candy cane reindeer, handy Santa ornaments, and elf-sized snow globes. 

And who can not read The Polar Express during December! It's one of my favorites!

I then got to go home for the holidays and celebrate with my family!

We started Christmas with a great church service and were reminded the reason we were celebrating. 

Then we came home to exchange some gifts.

We surprised my mom with a nativity that she wanted and I made my dad this Auburn fight song canvas. 

Then my mom surprised my sister and I with 

a trip to NEW YORK to see NEWSIES on BROADWAY!

She wrapped up newspapers for the gift since tickets haven't gone on sale yet. 

(It took us a few guesses to figure it out, but it was a cute idea)

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and celebrated your blessings with family!

~Rachel 

I'm blogging elsewhere

Today I am in North Carolina with family, however, I'm also guest blogging over at the sister's blog... Come check out the gift I made her at A Step in the Journey.

Happy Holidays

~Rachel 

Special Memory Ornaments

     So I was thinking... what did people do before Pinterest. It is such a great way to find crafts to make. This fall I was blessed with a small group Bible study. Three other girls and myself study God's word in the book of Daniel. We had a blast working through each chapter and challenged ourselves to memorize one of the prayers that Daniel prayed to the Lord. We finished the last chapter right before Christmas and so with the help of Pinterest I created these Memory Verse Ornaments.

Supplies:

Glass ornaments

Twine

Scissors

Ribbon

Pen

Ruler

Scrapbook Paper

1. Measure off the lines on scrapbook paper. My lines were about 4 cm in height. You can decide who big or small you would like them, just make sure they will fit in the whole of the ornament. 

 2. The girls in my bible study each had a different version of the Bible, so I used the BibleGateway to make sure that the verse was in their version.(NIV, NAS, and ESV)

 3. I wrote out the verse on the lines. Daniel 2:20-23

Daniel said, “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. ²¹ “It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding. 

²² “It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him. ²³ “To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, For You have given me wisdom and power; Even now You have made known to me what we requested of You, For You have made known to us the king’s matter.”

 4. I cut the strips apart and added them to the ornament. You can roll them around a pencil to place them in the ornament but I ended up just sliding them in and letting them curl around themselves.

Happy Crafting!

~Rachel 

The Best Year Yet

So I was thinking...about getting another year older and how much has changed since I was little. I just got back from the Muppet movie. Yes, you heard me right, my friend and I just went to see it. (Yes we are 23, but sometimes its more fun to live in the good old days of Kermit and Miss Piggy!) This past weekend I turned another year older and hopefully getting another year wiser. 22 was a big year for me: graduating college, getting a job, and embarking on this life we like to call adulthood, but I know God has more in store for me as I step forward to year 23, which my sister keeps telling me is going to be the "BEST YEAR YET!" and I hope that it continues to go up here from here!

My mom and I traveled over to Atlanta this past weekend to celebrate the anniversary of my birth. It was low key, but perfect and relaxing (just what this teacher needed(minus the cold that also came with it)). After a great dinner and taking in the Atlanta Christmas lights we laid low on Saturday, creating some delicious cake ball ornaments for my sister's Sunday School party on Saturday. I was blessed with some very thoughtful presents that I should share: an adorable camera strap cover from the sis and bro-in-law and this beautiful heart necklace that was my grandmother's. Needless to say there were tears shed but for everyones sake I will only show the necklace and not my tearful shots.

And what teacher's birthday would be complete without a children's book to 

add to the growing collection. 

After another great meal, mom and I went off to see New Year's Eve, pretty cute movie, and ended the weekend with a great church service and Montgomery's Live Christmas Tree. It was a great weekend to hang out with the family. 

Here is a quick self-portrait for the photography challenge finale and to show 

off the sister's craftiness on my adorable camera strap. 

~Rachel 

From a distance

My senior year I had the privilege of going to New York twice in three months. Once with my uncle as a graduation gift and another on my senior class trip. This gorgeous cathedral caught my eye both times. Here is the beautiful structure from a distance.   Oh how I wish I could go back to NYC soon! Newsies, one of my favorite movies, is going on Broadway and I would love to see it!

~Rachel

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

After Thanksgiving break my class came back already ready for Christmas. On Monday they were talking about their elves on the shelves and I told them that we couldn't talk about Christmas until December 1st! Please don't think I was squelching their dreams I just needed to make sure that we stayed on task until Dibels testing was over. Dibels came and went, and on Thursday like promised Christmas came to our classroom! We played Christmas music during work time and I displayed all of my Christmas books and even previewed a few. I impressed my little ones with my memorization of Twas the Night Before Christmas. (Thanks 10th grade English)

We created cute reindeer this week and were able to give each little reindeer a shiny, glittery red nose. It is amazing how fascinated kids are with glitter. I think they could have watched me pour glitter on those noses for hours! 

The month of December we are taking a break from SF and so I was able to allow my top groups to read Amelia Bedila. It was quite funny to see how they comprehended the book and hysterical to watch them bend over laughing at her literal interpretation of things. Their favorite was when she "dressed the turkey!" 

I rearranged my room on Friday and meant to take pictures but forgot, so come back early next week to see the changes. I didn't want a desk anymore so I am going to use my small group table as my 'desk.' I pushed the clunky desk across the room and turned it around. I brought out the magnet word strips and I am going to use it as a sentence making station! 

I was able to talk about the Lord with my kids which excited me. I was telling them that I understood why we celebrated Thanksgiving because of the Pilgrims and Native Americans, but why did we celebrate Christmas. I was blessed to have some hands pop up. One little boy said that it was because it was Jesus' birthday. So I dug a little deeper and asked "Who is Jesus?" Another little boy told us that he was the Son of God. I told them how proud I was that they knew and we moved on to review long a. I love seeing what they know and getting to share some encouraging words with some of my friends that are just now learning about our Savior. 

A funny story happened last week. The word pray came up when we were learning about how ay also makes the long a sound. So I asked what is prayer. A little girl told us it is where you talk to God. Then the little boy who told us why we celebrate Christmas raised his hand. TM said "Guess what? I go to Sunday School and I even know who the first person was!" Me: "Really" TM: "Yea, Adam, well and then Eve, but he was first!" 

~Miss Anderson 

A Childhood Memory

So I was thinking... how happy Christmas makes me! It brings some of the greatest things together: the celebration of Christ's birth and the reminder of what He did for us, the joy of giving to others, and being surrounded by all my family.  When spurred by the topic of "Childhood Memory" from my sister's photography challenge I immediately thought of the angel that we put on our Christmas tree every year. This was a huge tradition for us. When we were little every year LB, Z and myself would all beg to be the one that would get to put the angel on top of the tree. It was fantastic getting to climb on top of our dad's shoulders and complete our lovely tree with the angel on top. We shared this responsibility, having to take turns, so my chance came around every three years. To this day I still get excited when topping off the tree with the same angel we have used for the past 27 years. I was excited when I went home for Thanksgiving because this was my chance to capture this great childhood memory. However, our tree did go up, but our lights have yet to adorn the tree and so the angel and ornaments were still boxed up when I left to return to my AU home. Realizing this fact mid-drive home I started to think what else was a great memory.

We all know how much Santa loves cookies and our crew should be credited for some of the lb's that Santa puts on on that all night flight. When we were little we would 'decorate' these cookies: well pour as many sprinkles on as we could before they were taken away from us. As we got older we started to be more meticulous in our decorating sessions. For the past 8 or so years when cookie decorating time commences LB and I pull out the rolling pin and our tweezers. (Yes I said tweezers, and yes I promised that they are clean!) We very carefully decorate our cookies to make them as real-life as possible. Here are a few pics from two years ago at our decorating session.

 Our cousin B, came up to join. I mentioned that we spend lots of family time, but 

did I mention it is because they live two houses down?

 Taking a try at Good St. Nick.

The sis, trying out icing instead of sprinkles, a new addition to our decorating session. 

Hope you are getting excited about celebrating the reason for the season with your family and childhood memories.
~Rachel