Four Feet More

It's a new year, after all, and I want to start it off right. As I walked to my classroom today, I felt truly happy to be there. Looking at the kids made me smile, and Peter greeted me first thing with an enthusiastic, "Hi Mrs. P!" All in all, it was a good day back after a Winter Break full of ups and downs.

Having already told you about the lows, I'll give a quick recap of the highs from this holiday season.

• We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner, just the four of us. Jeff made roast duck, au gratin potatoes (with gruyere cheese), roast turnips, and the best rotkohl EVER. We were all fat and happy when the meal was done.
• Vika finally got the American Girl doll she's wanted for so long. We can't figure out how he did it, but somehow Santa managed to find a doll with dark brown hair, dark eyes and olive skin. Even after skimming through all her catalogues, Vika still cannot find another doll exactly like hers, so right now, she's feeling pretty special. She named her doll "Tory," a shortened form of her own name, Victoria. (Side note: this American Girl thing can get way out of hand. They have a treehouse for the dang dolls that costs $250!!!! They also must have some wicked cookie system because since helping Santa with his online gift research, no matter what website I go to, an American Girl ad pops up.).
• Eamon got a bunch of Star Wars legos, which kept him busy for hours and a Boba Fett costume from Santa. How St. Nick knew that Boba Fett was Mama's favorite Star Wars character is anyone's guess. ;)
• After hours spent in the women's sections of various stores (bless him), Jeff found me the perfect "grown-up" coat for Christmas. It's long, black and belted, and makes me look WAY more sophisticated than I actually am.
  
• Jeff and I also got BlackBerrys for Christmas (although they haven't yet arrived). I guess I'm going to have to take the same plunge Rachael did and learn how to send text messages.
  

Finally, I leave you with a somewhat amusing story from my class. Around the holidays, I give my students an ornament assignment. They are asked to design an ornament that in some way depicts their family's winter traditions. They later present the ornament to the class, sharing a little bit about their culture as they do so. After the presentations, all ornaments are hung on my class "Festivus" tree (An equal-opportunity, artificial tree with LED lights that change from blue to green to red to yellow. Classy!).

One of my students, we'll call him Mark, described his ornament in great theological detail. He told of all the traditions his family has to celebrate their religious faith during the Christmas season, and concluded his presentation by saying that every year his family makes a birthday cake for Jesus and sings "Happy Birthday" to Him on Christmas Day. At this point another student, who was listening attentively, cocked his head to the side with a confused look on his face and raised his hand. When Mark called upon him he asked, with genuine curiosity, "How many candles do you put on the birthday cake?" Mark thought a moment and then answered with a shrug, "Like 20." While this answer confused me (I mean, obviously 2008 candles is excessive, but what about 1? And who blows out the candles?), it seemed to satisfy the other student, who nodded in complete understanding.

"Kid logic" at it's finest.


Eamon as Boba Fett