Tie a Day, Number 45

Looney Tunes and Christmas; what could be more fun than that? This parade of Looney Tunes characters marches across today’s tie in rows divided by Holly leaves. All the little figures are wearing Santa hats. I love all of them, but there is a special place in my heart for Taz…

The Christmas ties are going quickly, I think I only have two more, but I might be able to sneak in a couple of Christmas themed T-shirts to make up the difference before my school is off for winter break.

I have been reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas over the last week or so to students at my school, and it has gotten to be such a habit that reading the story is like 12 and half minutes of total peace; for me. It is a very strange experience, sort of like the Zen of reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Most of the time it is like a Zen experience, except for last Friday. I read the story and it started badly because it was a last minute, unexpected event and I was rushing around right before I began. I became very upset with myself because I started the story out of breath, and I messed up 3 times. I also had my coordinator there and other adults kept popping in. I guess I am not perfectly in tune with the story, because if I was, none of that would have mattered.

I think I need to work harder at reading the Grinch.

A friend of mine shared this awesome lighted house video-

Amazing Grace Techno - Computer Controlled Christmas Lights from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.

It makes me want to go to Utah just to see it!

Tie a Day, Number 42

The tie I wore today is a fun Christmas tie. All over the tie are cartoon pictures of dogs and who they belong to; Tiny Tim’s Dog, Scrooge’s Dog, Frosty’s Dog, Elf’s Dog, and of course, Santa’s Dog.

If I had to place when I got the tie I would have to guess 1997, although it could be a couple of years later. I am sure it was a gift. It may have been from a kindergarten student, friend or family member. I wish I had a better memory for these things…

Day two of the Grinch reading and I feel the need to share some fun- don't forget to Elf Yourself!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Bad Elf

My idea of the perfect elf is something similar to the character played by Will Ferrell in the movie, Elf. A good elf should be full of the Christmas spirit, oozes love and kindness, and wraps the perfect present. I try to be full of the Christmas spirit and ooze love and kindness, but I fail miserably in one important category- present wrapping.

I try to be a good wrapper, I really do. I attempt to carefully estimate the exact amount of wrapping paper needed. I fold the paper with nice little creases; try to make triangles that fold in on themselves to cover the ends, and use just the minimum of tape, but the presents I wrap are easy to spot under the tree. It is like my presents have been dragged behind Santa's sled over all the neighbors’ roofs.

When I wrap presents, the Lorax cries. I often find myself using twice the amount of paper that is needed for some gifts. The ends of the gifts have so much paper bunched up that I feel compelled to get my staple gun and tack down the corners. The seams are angled oddly on the sides, and sometimes on the front of my gifts. On the presents that I don't use too much paper, I don't use nearly enough paper. It is not unusual for my presents to have holes on the sides and on the back of the gifts that must be patched with scraps. The end result is like some sort of patch work wrapping experiment that requires four times the normal amount of tape. The frightening Frankenstein present.

There is no perfectly wrapped gift from me. There are always highly noticeable issues that stand out like neck bolts. It is like I am missing the present wrapping gene.

Last night the marathon of gift wrapping began, but Amy was not feeling well. Hanging out with the kids over the last two days without me left her worn-out, and fighting a bad cold. She totally has my sympathy, but with three kids and two days before the major unwrapping event, the job had to be done.

So, I volunteered to wrap presents and told her to just label the presents as I finish. I had completely forgotten that I cannot do this task without looking like a spaz. How that had escaped me I really don't know because as soon as the present and the wrapping tools are within arm’s length, it all comes rushing back to me.

Amy was watching me align presents and create my Christmas origami mysteries, but I refused to meet her eye. I knew she was ready to burst out laughing and I just couldn't be distracted from the task at hand. There was no time to be mocked.

But there was plenty of time to curse and mutter under my breath about the ridiculous shape of toy packaging- large rectangular cuboids- Stupid!

Tape is another problem for me- sometimes it is too sticky, other times it is not sticky enough, and just when you are on a large, challenging wrapping job and you only have one hand free to seal the deal, you run out. Even though I buy tape three packs at a time, I can never find the other two rolls. I have been known to resort to using duct tape in a pinch.

This year I bought a handy little paper cutter. You just run the tool down the length of the paper and it cuts the perfect straight line. Bull! This thing cannot cut a straight line, and after you have used it a few times, it no longer wants to cut paper at all. It wants to shred paper, making bunched up tears, and jagged ripples that make every cut an adventure.

I was trying to do my present wrapping on my bed. There really couldn't be a more difficult place to wrap things, it is too soft, with pillows and blankets and I always tear holes in the paper by accidently pushing the present through the paper on the reverse side and into the bed. The problem is that my little people are all jacked up on the idea of Christmas presents and the sound of wrapping paper is like the sound of bells to Pavlov's dogs. When you are an elf at my house, you must wrap under the most strict security measures possible- locked door, wait an hour after the kid's bedtime, and you must listen for the sounds of stirring gremlins. There is no wrapping at the dining room table…

For some problems in life there are no solutions, we just do the best we can. The wrapping problem continues, and Amy's cold is worse. I bought lots of extra tape, and few extra 1000 ft rolls of wrapping paper. Later today I will coffee up and do it all. I am a little over halfway through the gifts that I remember needing to wrap, but the job must be done – even if I am a bad elf!

In the spirit of the season, I would like to share this little song with you-



Happy Holidays!

The Grinch

Every year, since I became a kindergarten teacher in 1990, I have shared one of my favorite books of all time just before the winter holiday, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This means I have shared this story for possibly 17 years with a couple thousand children or so.

I think that I became struck with the story when I was a child watching the Chuck Jones adaptation of the story. I love the book because it shows that even if you make a mistake in life there is a chance at redemption. It is also a reminder to me that Christmas really is more than shopping, and getting stuff. It is more about the joy of being with people that you love and showing kindness to those you don't even know- just because it is the right thing to do.

Now that I am a computer resource teacher in an elementary school, I share the story with around 22 classes every year (K-2 grade). I have created a lesson around the Grinch, and I would like to share it.

First, I read the story.

I read this story to a group of kindergartners today. I thought it was appropriate considering where I began this tradition.

After the story, I explain to the children how they can use tools in the program Kid Pix to create their own picture of the Grinch, or another character from the story.

The tools in Kid Pix allow the children a chance to be creative in expressing their own vision of the story with some pretty good graphics tools. I have created slide shows in the past of student's pictures and they generally turn out to be pretty good for pictures made by young people with only 15 minutes or so to make one. I will try to add a slide show tomorrow...

It seems like such a small thing to do, but it is my way of sharing something that I truly love with students that I work with at my school. It is a pretty lame Christmas present to get, but it has a lot of meaning for me when I share the Grinch with children. I hope the web enjoys it, too.

Merry Christmas!
:-)
Al

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is a time of opposites. For me it is both the happiest time of the year and the most sad, but I think it is also very confusing for the rest of the country as well.

Black Friday- this is the first shopping day after Thanksgiving. Thursday is Thanksgiving when we share good times with family and friends. Friday is the next day when stores open up at 4 am to angry, out for blood, crowds of serious bargan hunters. I made the mistake of going to Circuit City this year on Black Friday and I was seriously worried about the safety of my son and myself for that brief 20 minutes of chaos. Why is the first official Christmas shopping day more like war than Peace on Earth?

Holiday lights- Hanging holiday lights outside of a house is crazy. Last year I almost fell off the roof. This year I am really into the minimalist approach. A string of lights around the front steps at my house and a blow up Santa and reindeer in the yard. I hope this will be enough. It makes me angry to think that others may believe that I have less holiday spirit because I don't have lights all over the place. I have spirit! Yes, I do! I have spirit, how about you!

Salvation Army bell ringers- Where are they all year long? Every time I pass one going into a store, and coming out of the very same store, I give them money. My kids are trained so that when they see anyone standing outside of a store they beg me fror money to give to them. Half of the time I have to say things like, "No baby. That is the Guy collecting grocery carts." It is a good thing to give to the less fortunate, but where are the bell ringers the rest of the year? Wouldn't they make more money to help others if they were collecting year around?

Giving- I enjoy giving people things that they really want. I think this is the best part of the season, but commericials have warped what I think I need to give to my wife to make her happy. If you watch those commercials, it would seem that I am a very bad husband because I do not give my wife diamonds for Christmas that are big enough to choke your dog, or a new Lexus with a great big red ribbon on it. I am not a rich man. What does an unwealthy husband give his wife for Christmas? A dustbuster (I did this once- not a very popular decision)?

Christmas cards- Every year I try to take a picture of the family and send it out as a Christmas card. I send the digital photo in (online) to Walmart and the next day I have 40 cards ready to go. I also like to make my own stamps at stamps.com. This year we are using our dog Kona as the official Doss Christmas stamp of '07. The part I hate is sending them out. But this year I am going to do my best to get them all out before this weekend.

More later...