What a week!

This has been the longest week! Probably because I was unprepared to go back to work this past Monday. Having 3 snow days before Christmas break didn't help. So I used all recesses and all my lunches, plus a lot of time after school, to keep my head above water this week and prepare for next week. I was so glad I made it through the week! It was touch and go there for awhile. Alyssa had ballet on Monday night, Curtis' Cub Scouts meeting was cancelled for this week, so after school activities were not that bad.

I worried about the dogs during the day too, because they have gotten very used to being inside a lot of the day and it is still cold most of the time. Here is a picture of Belle one morning, looking really pitiful right before she went outside for the day. Don't you feel really bad for her?

Last weekend, Mike and Curtis built a doghouse for the dogs. They did a really good job. Alyssa got to help Dad and Curtis paint it. I will try and take a picture of it and post it later, because they did such a great job.

Awards, Baths, and Christmas trees

The month of December was been a very busy one for our family. It seems that we are always going. The kids and I are looking forward to two weeks off after this next busy week. We have Winter/Christmas programs at school on Tuesday and Thursday. Alyssa will sing Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer and recite the poem "Eight Little Reindeer" with her class. My class will be performing on Thursday night. Last year it was so crazy they decided to split it up and have the Kinders and 1st graders on one night and any other classes who perform do so on another night. I don't think Curtis' class will be performing.

Curtis recieved two awards on Friday. One was the Outstanding reader award. He is reading over 130 something words a minute with no mistakes. The other was an Outstanding Effort award. Luckily his award assembly was during my prep period and I was able to run over. We are really proud of him and all his efforts.

We bought our Christmas tree this year at Home Depot, rather than drive all the way down to the Christmas tree farm. We were short on time and decided to take a look at the trees at Home Depot, Tuesday night after going to our nephew Joel's 2nd birthday party. They had some really pretty ones and so we decided to get one there. We saved the trip down to Yucaipa and probably about $25. The kids were upset that we weren't following our family tradition, but we told them that sometimes we have to create new traditions. (Not that I really want a trip to Home Depot, being part of a new family tradition.) We decorated our Christmas tree on Thursday night and here are the results. I think it looks beautiful!

I took the dogs to the groomer today. They were both so dirty and Belle was matted. I try to brush her all the time, but she cries and makes it difficult. I realize I need to be the boss, but her cries her pitiful. Anyway, she got a really close haircut. She looks really cute, but it is so cold outside that I put her cute t-shirt that Maury got for her on. The groomer also put these cute Christmas bandanas on the dogs after they were groomed. Here is one final picture of Belle, before I post our first and hopefully not only post.