I Survived!! (Pictures, Tutorial and Giveaway Winner!)

Woo! Last day before Winter Break and it was a tough one! Everyone seemed full of sugar today - even though I didn't give them any - maybe their parents snuck them candy canes for breakfast or something. I was going to have a totally lax, watch movies and color kind of day, but I unexpectedly had Army officers volunteer in my class again so I had to make it look like I was earning my paycheck :) We did some reading, writing and math and took our spelling test - which a record number of kiddos scored 100% on!  We had a small party in the afternoon - I bought pizza and made hot apple cider and one of the kids brought in some cookies. Then we danced a little to some Stephen Fite songs - do you know him? He's an Okie and he's awesome :)

Then it was finally time for dismissal but we had the added complication of our Bags of Blessings. A local church donates toiletries and non-perishable food as well as a small toy for each child. Each child had 2 huge grocery bags plus a bottle of Sunny D and a bottle of water. Since they couldn't carry it all the parents had to come to the classroom to pick up each child - so there's me handing out bags, trying to make sure everyone gets what they need, plus make sure that all the kids have their jackets and backpacks and aren't clobbering each other on the heads with them! Talk about frazzled!


Thankfully we get to come in over the break to work in our rooms so after a quick tidy I got to go home without having to worry about taking down all the decorations and such. I promised pictures of my tree and I almost forgot - here's one I snapped as I was walking out the door - couldn't get one of my turkey window display because the sun shines right on it in the afternoon, but trust me, it was cute and the kids loved it!

So there I was, driving home, when my kids started yelling: "Mistletoe!" and sure enough a little boy and his mom had a table set up on the sidewalk selling bunches of mistletoe. So I stopped and bought some - think my husband likes it?

I know - this is a totally random post isn't it? Seems I've got a bit of everything in this one!

The other day I saw this cute little sock snowman and for the life of me I can't remember which blog it came from - and I forgot to pin it so I can't find it. If it was your blog please let me know so I can give you credit. These were such a hit amongst my coworkers - I made one for every teacher on the primary team and the two Title I coordinators - super quick, easy and inexpensive which is always a plus! Here's a quick tutorial because these would be perfect for last minute gifts!

Materials:
Large candy bars ( I used 4.4oz Hershey's)
cardstock
fuzzy socks (got mine 2/$297 at Walmart)
coordinating ribbon
markers.

1. Cut the card stock so it wraps around the candy bar with a slight overlap. My pieces were roughly 81/2" x 91/2".

2. Use a glue gun to secure the edges of the paper together - this is why it's important to use cardstock - we don't want the hot glue to melt the chocolate!

 3. Fold the socks together with a wide cuff.

3. Slip them onto the top of the wrapped chocolate bar and tie a bow with the ribbon.

5. Using markers, draw a simple snowman face - I just handed the markers to my 12 year old and let her go to town :)

 6. The final step is to fold the front part of your cuff down to make it look more hat-like and to hid the insides of the sock which usually aren't as pretty.

Simple gift for less than $4 each - and who doesn't like fuzzy socks and chocolate?!

Okay, drumroll please. The giveaway for the Chuggington Traffic Safety kit is:

Kelly B aka Queen B! Send me an email to ingen77@yahoo.com with your address and I will get your prize mailed to you! Congrats!