Christmas 2014

We preformed two songs for this year's Christmas Concert: What Are You Doing New Year's Eve and Hotel Yorba. We also made the greatest Christmas poster that has ever existed (Jordan's grade 2 class made a close second) and built a successful Santa trap.

2B's Christmas Poster

The Best!

Our students needed to put several smaller boxes together to make a big enough Santa trap.

Hard at work.

We hung the box from the ceiling using a pulley and questionable ladder safety.

Some were more helpful than others.

It got very cold in the last few weeks of school, and indoor recess can be really boring. To solve this problem we managed to get a ping-pong table a few times to hold a Tournament Magnifico!

Santa is coming get ready!

He's coming!

Don't worry, we freed Santa so you'll all get your presents tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

Dirty Paws

It’s been a while since I’ve had time to write anything. We’ve just been so busy! The lead up to Christmas is full of additional work and activities, Ender and I just finished our course work on Monday, and we have both been super busy adjusting our lives around her….

That’s right, she’s ours! After a waiting a few days and returning with a solid offer, the owners changed their minds. We’ve had Korra for over a month now.

Other than the pain of having to rearrange our Christmas travel plans (we are now driving) so far things are going well. And now that our course is finished I can really focus on training her.  

Earlier this year Ender ordered a reflector telescope. So far he's only been able to take the kids out once to see the moon. It’s been constantly overcast and on the rare occasions when the clouds do let up it’s too cold to be outside for very long. This week has been the coldest so far, dropping down to -40 with the wind chill. We will likely need to wait until the spring before an evening class can be arranged.

Because our class has been reading Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet, Ender has been going over survival skills with our students. We spent an afternoon last week making a fire and cooking bannock outside. That day the Northern store held a snowman building competition as well. It hasn't been warm enough for packing snow for weeks so our snowmen were pretty pathetic.  

This year for the Christmas concert we are joining our two classes together to sing two songs, Ho Hey by the Lumineers and Dirty Paws by Of Monsters and Men. The kids are having a great time singing and we’re all really excited to perform. For Dirty Paws we have also created a shadow puppet show which I’ll be running while they sing. I absolutely love the puppets they have made so far.

There are only two school days remaining and then it’s time to go home for two weeks to visit family and friends.

Welcome 2013!

Grade 5's at the Christmas Concert

Well we’re back in Garden Hill after a fantastic holiday with family and friends. Because we've been so busy I didn't get much of an opportunity to write about the holidays, so consider this to be a well over due holiday summary post. 

12 Days of Garden Hill Christmas

Both the high school and the elementary school held Christmas concerts during the day for parents. Ender’s class performed ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas complete with costumes and four tiny reindeer. 

Mr. A reading the poem.

Flinging open the shutters.

Santa

Final number.

'Spirit' week elf hat.

Our class's Christmas corner

The high school also had a Christmas corner decorating contest, in which we were only allowed to use paper and cardboard to create an enchanting Christmas scene. I built the tree as a base for the kids and then they had a day to decorate it however they wanted. I especially liked the chair and the bearskin rug. 

Our class won 2nd place!

Silent Night in English

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Silent Night in Cree

Cards Against Humanity

Some of Chrissy's decorations.

Once the Christmas craziness was done and over with we packed our things and headed home for the holidays! Unfortunately because we spent the majority of the break in BC we didn't have much time for all of our Ontario loved ones. However, we had enough time to spend the first half of our holiday in Prince Edward County, Ontario. We visited with friends, attended a pioneer party with a gift exchange, and managed to see Ender’s family as well.

Ender and I ready for our first day on the mountain.

On Christmas Day we flew out of Toronto for Comox, BC where we spent the next week at a chalet with my family on Mount Washington. With four metres of snow and discounted lift tickets at our disposal, I learned to ski and Ender learned to snowboard. The scenery was breathtaking.

The whole family.

Science!

For new years we met up with our friend Sarah and spent some time in Vancouver. We went to Science World on New Years Day, ate sushi and noodles and toured the city. It’s by far the nicest city I've ever been too.

Sarah was watching her sisters dog. She's blind in one eye... I think she looks like a wizard.

Sarah checking out the cloud tornado. .

View from the ferry.

Ender fell in love with BC when he visited it as a child and has always wanted to eventually move out there. I must say I've had a very similar reaction to the west coast and we are already talking about returning sometime next year.