Holiday Hoo-Rah

After we picked up Andy from the airport, we went to Allison's house for the NASC Holiday Hoo-Rah.  This is one of my favorite NASC staff events that happens during our year.

We spent a good amount of time just mingling:

Shortly after we arrived, it was time for the white elephant gift exchange.

There is a $15 spending limit.  Each year, there is a pretty good mix of nice gifts/gift cards and things that were found lying around the house.

It begins with each person drawing a number.  The first person opens a gift.  The second person can either steal the first person's gift or open a new gift, and so on.  If a gift is stolen from you, you can either steal from somebody else or open a new gift.  The game continues until all gifts have been opened.

Here are some staffers opening their gifts:

Even when you're not opening, it's fun to watch others' reactions:

After gifts were opened, many people left.  A few of us stuck around to play games... or to play with our new gifts!

Another great Hoo-Rah for the books!

A Welcome Home

Yesterday was our annual NASC Holiday Hoo-Rah.  It's the winter gathering where our volunteer staff gets together to enjoy holiday snacks and a white elephant gift exchange.

I carpooled to Omaha with my friends, Kelli and Keith.  We had to detour to the airport to pick up our friend Andy, who flew in from New Hampshire for the holidays.

Kelli made a sign to help welcome her:

In case you are wondering, the present that I am holding is not a present for Andy.  It is my white elephant gift for the Hoo-Rah.  I was so distracted by the fact that we were running late that I forgot to leave it in the car.

Since Andy didn't know that Keith was going to be a part of our carpool, we devised a plan while we waited for Keith to run up to Andy and do a spinning hug when she arrived.

We experimented with several different locations for Keith to hide:

I stood on the lookout while Kelli and Keith stood back.  Here is what happened next:

She was so surprised that all she could do was laugh.  I think she liked her welcoming committee!

My favorite quotation of the night happened at baggage claim when Andy said, "I have to keep touching you guys to make sure this is real!"

We are so glad you're home, Andy!

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

On Saturday, there was a real-live singing flash mob at the mall in my city!

I met two of my co-workers in the food court.  They both brought their adorable daughters to witness the singing.

Hailey (on the left) had no idea why she was there.  She was further confused as to why she had to eat lunch standing up because all the seats were full.  Avery (on the right) knew what was going on, but did a great job of keeping the secret.

We had to stand around for about 45 minutes before the singing started.  It was very crowded, but people were in good spirits.  Soon enough, this is what we heard:

After it was finished, Hailey said, "This was kind of worth the wait."

Indeed, it was!

A Little St. Nick

One of my favorite projects at church is our annual St. Nick project.  An amazing woman in our congregation named Teri came up with the idea 24 years ago, and it has been growing ever since.

Teri recognized that there was a need in rural communities throughout our state for Christmas gifts for low-income families.  In our city, there are many resources for families to be able to provide gifts for their children, but in many smaller communities, the amount of community resources isn't great.

So, Teri got in contact with county caseworkers throughout the state.  The caseworkers agreed to provide her with names of families, a brief synopsis of the circumstances under which the family has fallen, and a few gift suggestions for each member of the family.

Beginning in November, members of our congregation sign up to adopt these families in need.  Families can choose the size of family they wish to adopt.  Then, in December, we all get together for a wrapping party.

This year, I was assigned a family of nine.  I adopted three people and I volunteered to do "extra shopping" for members of our congregation who prefer donating money rather than doing the actual shopping.

The mother of the family was my age - 23 - and together with her boyfriend, they have seven children under the age of nine.  If you do the math, you'll know that these parents were just kids themselves when they started their family.  It's very sobering to me to think about what my life would be like with even one child, and I can't begin to wrap my head around what life would be like with seven children.  I know many married couples with stable incomes that wouldn't even think about trying to raise seven children.

It is suggested that we only spend $25 per person in our adopted family.  So, on Black Friday, I went to Wal-Mart and put $25 worth of gifts in my cart for each person in my adopted family.  I stared at the cart and felt like I was giving away nothing.

This happens to me every year.  So, as usual, I went over budget.

Way over budget.

I couldn't help it.  Christmases were always really good at my house.  They still are.  I just couldn't bear the thought of seven young children opening up only one or two gifts on Christmas morning.

Now, I know that Christmas is about much more than opening presents on Christmas morning, but for this family that I don't know and will never meet,  I hope that the things that I bought them - books, games, movies - will provide them with some activities that can be done together so that they may grow closer as a family.  Most of all, I hope that the gifts that I purchase will give them a sense of hope in the midst of some really hard times that their family is going through.

When it came time for the wrapping party last week, there was lots of work to be done:

I always invite at least one of my friends to come with me to help wrap.  This year, since my friend Ashley shared with me that she loves wrapping presents, I invited her.  She was a great helper!

 I love that this project at my church allows for families to show compassion for those who are less fortunate.  While we were wrapping, I loved listening to what this father was telling his son about giving and receiving.

This sweet boy helped pick out the gifts that his family gave away, and I could tell that he learned a good lesson in the value of a dollar.  He, like me, felt bad for not being able to do more for their adopted family.

As a congregation, we bought gifts for 420 people this year.  And after only two-and-a-half hours, all the presents were wrapped and packaged for delivery.

It is my prayer that these gifts will be a blessing to those who receive them this year.

Getting in the Holiday Spirit

I love the Christmas season.  So it makes no sense why I procrastinate getting ready for it more and more each year.

As a kid, my parents were always on top of it.  They went all out, indoors and outdoors.  We used to spend the day after Thanksgiving getting everything ready.  My father and brother took care of the outside, and my mom and I took care of the inside.  We put up multiple Christmas trees, mom set up her winter village scene, and we hung garland everywhere we could find room for it.

I always looked forward to the time we spent as a family while getting our house ready... blaring Christmas CDs over the stereo system, looking through all the handmade ornaments that had been made beginning in our preschool years, putting the first fire in the fireplace, and setting up the nativity scene so we could say goodnight to Baby Jesus each night before bed.  The Christmas season at our house was wonderful.

When I went to college, I lost the privilege of decorating the house.  Mostly because my parents wanted it to look festive when I came home for Thanksgiving.  So, by the time I got home, all the work was already done.  I didn't do much of my own decorating during the college years because there just isn't much room to decorate in a dorm room.

Last year, in my first year of adulthood, I contemplated not decorating at all.  I had just started my first job, and had spent all my savings on boring things like furniture, dishes, towels, and classroom supplies.  I didn't leave room in the budget for Christmas decorations.  Thankfully, when my mom came up to go shopping on Black Friday, she generously offered to purchase my first Christmas tree and all the decorations that would go on it.  Furthermore, she offered to stay with me and help me decorate it.

Thanks, Mom.

This year, I decided to be a big girl and decorate all by myself.  I purchased a few new things, and I wanted everything to be ready before my family visited last weekend.

I got a few new things for my table...

I got a few new ornaments...

Dusted off the old star...

And bought all new things for my mantle.

It's still not exactly how I want it to look, but I spent way too much money on decorations.  It's good enough for this year, though, and I'll plan to get some more things next year.

I finally forced myself to wrap the presents that remained under the tree in Target sacks and amazon.com boxes.  As it turns out, I much prefer the wrapped present look.

When I woke up on Saturday and looked out my window, this is what I saw:

At first, I was not thrilled.  I am notsomuch a winter person, and all I could think about was how the season of bundling up to go outside was upon us.  Worse yet, the season of indoor recess for my 6th graders is upon us.

On second thought, I was kind of excited to see the ground slightly covered in snow.  Elie, my best friend from college, was hosting a Christmas cookie decorating party, and the snowy day made the cookie decorating party seem more festive.

I took no action shots while at Elie's, but I did take pictures of the final products.  I am not very creative, so using frosting to make cookies cute is not a strength of mine, but they turned out OK...

Elie and our friend Claire were much more creative with their cookies:

Claire even made some Husker-themed cookies!

So finally, with the decorations, the presents, the cookies, and the snow, it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.  Here's hoping you and yours are enjoying the preparation as much as I am.

Dance Week is Over!

I love, love, love teaching middle school. Really, I do.   But weeks such as this one simply wear me out.

It started out on Tuesday with some Husker student-athletes coming to visit our 7th graders. Our local college team's kicking squad - Alex Henery, Brett Maher, and P.J. Mangieri - came to answer student questions.

The kids loved getting to hear from these special guests!

Less than one hour later, Student Council hosted our first 6th grade dance of the year.  Because of the amount of students who ride buses, we have to have each grade-level dance on a separate day to avoid over-crowding what few buses are available to us.  For most, this would seem like a good idea.  For this Student Council sponsor, it makes for an exhausting week.

I get such a kick out of our precious 6th graders as they anxiously anticipate their very first middle school dance.  They aren't quite sure what to wear or if they need a date or what the cool dance moves are, so they are absolutely worthless in class that day.

You couldn't pay me enough to back to that time in my life.

Only 180 of them came to the dance, which was down from last year's 230.  But I can't imagine what it would have been like with another 50 kids.  Last year, we had to prod our kids to actually dance.  This year, they basically just ran around for an hour.  It was simply crazy.

During a slow song, the floor pretty much cleared except for one of my Language Arts students and his girlfriend.  Really, they are a very sweet couple.  He always saves her a seat at breakfast.  He walks her to class.  And he has no shame in slow-dancing with her, even when it is clearly not the popular thing to be doing.

What I didn't expect, however, was that he would kiss her when the song was over.

I saw it happen.

I looked the other way.

I went home with a headache.

The next morning when I said, "I can't believe you kissed her!" he said, "What?  It wasn't the first time."

Somehow, I was relieved by hearing that.

Wednesday, we hosted our 7th grade dance, which I have affectionately nicknamed, "Blood, Sweat, and Tears."  Only 150 of them came, which was a much more manageable number.  However:

Within the first ten minutes, there were two break-ups, which sent both parties crying in the bathrooms.

I am a lot of things, but I am not a good empathizer in the department of middle school relationships.  I said things like, "I'm sure that's really hard for you," or "He probably doesn't deserve you anyway."  Then, I went home and e-mailed the guidance counselor so she could follow up.

Later in the dance, some kid got whacked in the mouth, necessitating the use of a bloodborne pathogen kit.  They swear it was an accident.  I'm not convinced.

Also, a girl who just got out of surgery and who can only walk with the use of crutches got pushed down to the ground.  They swear it was an accident.  I'm not convinced.

The "sweat" part is pretty self-explanatory and is unavoidable at events such as these.  Yuck.

Today's 8th grade dance was the icing on the cake.  In a good way.

Based on the previous two dances, I had prepared myself for the worst.  These kids are the oldest, rowdiest, and have the "we-rule-the-school" kind of attitudes.  I had a bad attitude all day because I just didn't want to chaperon another dance.

But, they were great.  There were only 90 of them there, and they actually danced.  They were fun, they mingled outside of their everyday social circles, they included everybody, and they responded well when I told them, "No, I will not play that song."

At the end of the dance when I announced that it was time to go, they said, "Thank you."

Blow.  Me.  Down.

Thank-yous?  From eighth graders?  I didn't know they had it in them!

And now, dance week is over!  I've had enough cha-cha-sliding, dougie-ing, whipping my hair back-and-forth, jerking, stanky leging, and pop, lock, and dropping to last me a lifetime.  Or at least until our next round of dances in April.