Some Christmas Stories

By the kids

The first is Cinderella's (age 6)

The titull is the list of caldr days itill Christmas

The star oh the star
it is so beautiful!

the angel oh the angel
her wings is so beautiful.

the camel oh the camel
his bumps are so beautiful.

Babby Jesus oh babby Jesus
he is so handsome.

the sheep of the sheep
her wool is so soft

the cow oh the cow
she shared her manger.

the donkey oh the donkey
she carried Mary to the stable.

the wisman oh the wisman
they brot prasits to Baby Jeus
the prasits are beautiful.




An Acrostic Christmas Poem by Tarzan (age 7)
(minus the "R")

C hrist the lord was sleeping in his manger when men three of them were right there.

"H abdaba!" said the lord.

I (wich is a litte sheperd.) tryed to calm him down.

S o I took him to Mary and Josef.

T wo of the men walked by. The lord scremed agin.

M ary said "Go away!" to the men.

"A present we bring." said the men

S o the men gave the present but Mary said "My son is not a king." "Yes he is" said the men. "The star lead us to you." "Relly?" said Mary "Yes" said the men

Travel plans

For those who don't already know, and want to...
All 5 of us are driving up on the 23rd. We can't leave till Don gets back from work, but he's only working a 1/2 day. The plan is to drive the whole way. We'll see. At any rate, we'll be getting in really late. Don is flying out on Sunday, the 27th. His flight goes out of Boston at 6:00pm. Maybe if the weather cooperates, we could spend the day in Boston first? The kids and I are staying until Jan. 2nd, then we'll head back. Maybe all the way, maybe as far as Lisa's. (If she's okay with us crashing there again, even if she's not there!) Apparently I'm teaching choreo on the 29th. Don and I would love to go out to a movie, sans kids, sometime while he's there. So maybe on Saturday?
That's the plan!

Advent - Day 17

Not really much to write, just trying to get ready for Christmas on a zero budget/zero time system. In some ways, it really simplifies things. I did drive to the beach and get some sand shovels for the kids - big ones, better for digging and stuff. Boy, those kitchy beach crap stores have really lonely and desperate employees in December. Also got the Christmas letters written, printed and mailed. Elephant Man rehearsals are going well. I think the show's going to be pretty intense - in a good way. My three main concerns right now are 1. Intelligibility of the Elephant Man. The actor is Chinese, playing a lower class British accent, of a character with severe speech impediments. He's doing an amazing job, but I'm afraid we may lose some of our core audience (those over 70). 2. The stage. It's raked (ie. slanted) at a severe angle, and it's a reverse rake, which means the highest part is in the front and the lowest in the back. I have to admit, it's very visually interesting, but creates HUGE sightline problems. 3. Wearing Victorian garb on the aforementioned rake. Heels, petticoats, corsets, long skirts, gloves, hat, etc. It's going to be very challenging.
Kids all brought home great progress reports today. I haven't received my final grades yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm headed for all A's. Yay me!
Can't wait to see everybody!!!

Advent - Day 14

(Yeah, I skipped a few days. It was a show week.)

Little Women complete, first full day of Elephant Man today. Yay!

Kids are all healthy except for some residual coughing from Scooby.

Lots to catch up on this week!!!

Marmee

Marmee and the girls

Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy

Beth (actually Kenna) Sweet girl!!!

"Father sent all sorts of loving messages to his Little Women."

Advent Day 6

Cinderella seems fine.
Scooby has a fever.
All 3 are scheduled for H1N1 shots at school tomorrow. Do they get them even if they're sick?
The Christmas tree is up - the stand broke a little, so hopefully it will stay up.
Kids all got haircuts today - Cinderella's is chin-length! She's been asking for two years now, and she even paid for it herself, so I finally gave in. It is VERY cute, but too grown up looking. Edit: Pictures posted!
PRAYING that all are well enough to go to school tomorrow and that I don't get sick. My stomach's been mildly protesting all week, but hasn't gotten any worse, so I'm determinately ignoring it. This is finals week/production week for Little Women - I CAN'T GET SICK!!!!!

Decorating the tree - all three new haircuts - Amahl and the Night Visitors on TV in background

Advent Day 5

Cinderella seems to be okay today. No more incidents. Hooray. (Celebrating cautiously, just in case it's premature...)
Today's agenda - return library books, homework, Tech rehearsal for Little Women, homework.
Tomorrow's agenda - church, Christmas tree shopping, haircuts for the boys.

Advent Day 4

Yeah, so, I got every parent's favorite phone call today. "Mrs. Dunlap? This is the school nurse. Your daughter threw up on the bus, so we need you to come get her."
Fortunately, I didn't have anywhere I HAD to be during the day today and was able to pick her up and hang out all day. She seemed to feel much better once I got there, and didn't get sick again today. The new coat she was wearing for the first time got quite a dosing, but it cleaned up okay. She really didn't tell me she wasn't feeling well, and frankly, if she had I probably would have ignored it, considering all the "stomach aches" they've had before school.
The school nurse is very nice. She changed her into clean clothes and bagged up the dirty ones for me.

The checks were for the PTA sponsored Holiday shop at school. They have an assortment of gifts the kids can buy for family and friends, ranging from about 50 cents to 15 dollars each. The kids are supposed to decide who they're buying for and how much to spend on each one, but we didn't have a chance to do that before they went to school. So, I just gave them all 15 dollars and sent them off. THey all came back with a baggie of presents, and they all said they had enough for what they wanted to get, but I haven't seen the results yet!

Here's praying I stay healthy for the next several weeks!!!

Advent, Day Two

Had kind of a rough day today. Started off in a flurry and a rush, as I overslept and Tarzan woke me up 5 minutes before the bus came. Didn't have time to go over holiday shop budgets with the kids, just slapped a check in their envelopes. Should be interesting to see what they came home with. Cinderella was trying to tell me her tummy hurt, and I guess it did, since she came home wearing a "nurse's office" pair of pants and had her poopy ones in a baggy. No phone call, and I guess she felt better after that.
Found out in the middle of rehearsal today that one of my cohort's wife had a miscarriage tonight. He was very upset and had to leave rehearsal. So sad.
So, I've had better days, but mine wasn't as bad as some other people's.
Don's still having a very unpleasant time at the new base. Hopefully he'll get transferred back soon. Or, this contract will end and they'll find him another one somewhere else.

Advent, Day One

Yeah, no promises to keep up with every day, but I'll try.
Long day today. Got kids on the bus, went running, movement class at 10:00. Worked on RP or Standdard British pronounciation over lunch, Acting class. Came home, got kids off the bus, pottied and packed with their homework into the car. Drove Carol to the airport. Got kids home, finished up homework, fixed dinner, and off to Little Women rehearsal. Did a full run-through of the show for the designers, then went to Elephant Man rehearsal to work on British again. We also have finals coming up next week. Oh, and the kids need money tomorrow for the Holiday shop and school and I put my only $20 into the gas tank today. Hope the school takes checks.
Through all this, I'm still loving school. I love almost everything about it. The only things that really drive me crazy are the lack of sleep, the lack of money, and when other people in the program aren't as serious about the work as I am. I am paying too much money and investing too much time to have to work with slackers. Seriously. I know, preaching to the choir here.