12.14.2002 | 12:43 am

I officially kicked Scrooge out of my house tonight. Hubby, James and I went shopping for a Christmas tree, met with success, brought it home, and set it up in the living room. It was a typical Friday night after a tiring day in the nut tree...out to eat, then, off to do a little shopping. We always buy our tree from an Oregon grower who sets up shop here in the desert for the holiday season. In the usual �returned-missionary� fashion, our son wanted a modest tree, maybe even a Charlie Brown Tree. We compromised and settled on a medium-sized, Noble fir, fresh enough to last for two weeks...hopefully. For the last two years I have been collecting M.I. Hummel tree ornaments... yes, the real things. I have about 30 of them now. James wanted to use those as the main focus of the tree. They are gentle and sweet figurines of small children in Christmas settings. Each figure is about 2-3 inches tall. After I get all the lights on, the little children will adorn my tree this year.

When my kids were little, I was a fiend about making homemade decorations. I spent hours making toy soldiers, drums, teddy bears, Santa�s of every kind, gingerbread boys and the like. I still have all those ornaments, but many of them need to be repaired or replaced. I don�t think either option is realistic this year. Perhaps this summer, I can work on a project to make a set of toy soldiers and drums for each of the kid�s Christmas decorations, now that they have their own homes. I�ll just replace mine in the process.:) You�ll also be pleased to hear that I bought ONE more present today. Even the Grinch had to say adios today.

Life with the little squirrels was so calm and orderly today. I spoke with the librarian as I picked up the class from the library this morning. She was so amazed at the difference the absence of one child makes in the demeanor of a group. Later on, the whole class was sitting on the floor in the circle, working on some fairly complicated math strategies..
8-___= 5, 10-___= 2...you know, find the mystery number. Everyone was on task and concentrating. Nobody was being teased, poked or annoyed. How blessedly wonderful! Of course, calm never stays long in the forest with the little squirrels...especially close to Christmas. We had finished our math and spelling tests and the children were rotating through 5 different activity centers. The little critters LOVE centers after a hard work week. I was monitoring the activities as I graded spelling tests. Up to the table comes Maddison with a greenish look around the gills. �Mrs. Br....� ...oops...up comes her lunch and breakfast all over the spelling tests, painted Christmas stockings and my grade book. I quickly grabbed the waste basket as the remainder of her tummy landed there. But, it was too late for the things on my table.
First graders are strangely curious about throw-up. They simultaneously go �eew!� while wanting to come closer to see it.
I shooed everyone back to their centers, called the office for the janitor, sent Maddison to the restroom to clean up, and found her nurse card to send her to the nurse. Within 5 minutes everything was back to normal. Can I just say they we will be making all new Stained Glass Christmas Stockings on Monday. My grade book is in need of a pressing, since I had to hose it down and the pages are wrinkled now. The spelling tests, themselves, survived unscathed!

catsnapples~ in first grade and at life

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