Santaland Diaries

We've been having a wonderful visit with family and friends. In honor of the holiday, I'm sharing one of my favorite Sedaris stories... "Santaland Diaries" from Holidays on Ice. Enjoy! (I'm not totally sure it's kid appropriate, though.)

Cool Travel Pictures

This is taken outside of Anchorage and was a runner up in the Frommer's Photo Contest for travel pictures. The article has all the cool pictures.

Don't Forget the Truck

Wreaths? Santa hats? Nativity scenes? Yesterday I caught this funny NPR segment about trimming the truck, as well as the Christmas tree. (You can read it too, but it's funnier to hear it.)

Heading Home

I'm heading home tonight. John's already there-- in the much warmer weather. I'm excited to see my family, friends, and home! I won't be back to Alaska until 2011... how crazy! Both John and I are so happy to spend the holidays with our families, but are sad to leave Nelson and Hayden in Anchorage--no matter how good the caretakers :)

7 below

My new cold weather record is 7 below... this was the temperature when we left just after 7am this morning. (We left early to go to breakfast at Snow City Cafe. Judd kindly treated us as his hosts. What a nice surprise!)

MOOSE

I forgot my cell phone at home today. When I ran home to get it, I drove right past a moose. It was right there on the sidewalk! Here are a couple of pictures. I took them from the car and you can see just how close I was :) It was pretty neat.

P.S. on Root Beer Floats

If I had purchased root beer float ingredients the night before I needed them AND I was in Arizona, I'd leave the soda in the car and take the ice cream inside.

Last night, I left the ice cream in the car... and took the soda inside. Quite a unique experience.


Also, this semester I had an APU student who did his practicum in my classroom. He brought presents to me and the class today. He gave me an Alaska mug and the class got a new electric pencil sharpener and mechanical pencils. My, my-- that was the *perfect* gift for the kids. It was generous and appreciated.

Root Beer Floats and A Fairbanks Clerk Named Judd (sung to the tune of the 12 Days of Christmas)

Today is the kids' last day of school before break. My students have worked really hard with their behavior to earn 3 puzzles. We've decided to combine the puzzle prizes-- root beer floats, movie, and holiday party-- in order to have a whole day of festivities. My kids and I are very excited.

The Fairbanks and Juneau clerks are also in town. We're hosting Judd at our house. He's here from Fairbanks and says that, after 40 below 0, 10 degrees feels like "a gentle caress"... well, maybe not ;)

It is chilly here, but not terrible. It's like being in Arizona in the summer--just the opposite end of the spectrum... either way you blast the air. :)

Cookies

This year all the clerks decided to make each other baked goods as holiday gifts. John and I made 3 types of covered pretzels--vanilla, chocolate, and spicy cinnamon chocolate, Mexican wedding cakes (are these different than Russian tea cakes), and Magic Cookie Bars... YUM!!! Here are the recipes for the last 2.

MAGIC COOKIE BARS

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup butterscotch flavored chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°, (325° for glass dish). Line a 13x9-inch baking pan with a sheet of foil, making sure to cover the sites well. Place the butter in the baking pan and melt it in the oven. Sprinkle crumbs over butter; pour condensed milk evenly on top of crumbs. Top with remaining ingredients in order listed; press down firmly with fork. Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Chill if desired. Cut into bars. Store covered at room temperature.


MEXICAN WEDDING CAKES

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-pupose flour
1 cup finely chopped almonds or pecans
1/4 teaspoon salt
powdered sugar

Pre-heat oven to 325 F. In a large bowl combine 1/2 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla. Blend well. Stir in flour, nuts and salt until dough holds together. Shape into 1-inch balls. Place inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 15-20 minutes until set but not brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets. Cool slightly and roll in powdered sugar. Cool completely and reroll in powdered sugar. I had to add some milk... the proportions of wet to dry weren't sufficient to create a dough. I also chilled the dough before rolling it into balls.

The Icicle Twist

This past weekend Steve and Tammy hosted a Murder Mystery party-- The Icicle Twist. We all had a fun time.

I was Alicia Tomasini. I was terrible at staying in character. Mykael and Rebecca both played it big-- as did Dario, though he had a bit harder time with his complicated accent.

Needless to say, lots of laughter ensued. And I bet, if you read the title again, you too could deduce the murder weapon ;0

Sounds of Star Wars

The other day NPR ran a story on the new book-- Sounds of Star Wars

Not only did the book sound very, very cool... BUT it was also proposed by the company my sister works for-- Becker-Meyer. Pretty awesome!!

Alyeska Pics Part 2

This past weekend we went to Alyeska... and this time we skied. Well, John, Aesha, Dario, and Michael skied. I skied for a bit, but had a headache and retired to the lounge.

The Coat Pile

Often in t.v. and movies I have seen the "great coat pile"... often fodder for coat mix-ups and teenage misadventures. Never had I actually seen a coat pile up. It never even donned on me that I hadn't seen one until I had to dig through one tonight to find John and my coats. All these new experiences :)

John and I came across the pile at my staff holiday party. It was held at Elaine's house up on the hillside of Anchorage. It was lovely of Elaine to host us and we all had a nice time.

DIBELS Awesomeness!!!!!!

DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicator of Basic Early Literacy Skills. You may remember me talking about it during my earlier post about the use of the metronome.

Today was our big mid-year benchmark. We took the test at the beginning of the year and had some pretty disappointing outcomes. All the students were nervous... and maybe just a bit excited to see how they were doing :)

The kids did FANTASTIC!!!!! ALL of my students improved.

Scores are given in words correct per minute. The goal was 105 wpm. Except 1 of my students who improved only 4 words, all of my students improved at least 10 wpm. The class AVERAGE growth was 24 wpm which is incredible... about a 20% increase. I'm so, so very proud of my students. What a great way to start the weekend!!

Holiday Wishes

This evening John's Justice, Morgan, her husband and daughter had us, her other clerks (Steve- and Tammy- and Rebecca- and Henry), as well as their extended family and her Judicial Assistant (Sonja- and Matt) all over for dinner. We had a wonderful meal-- appetizers to desert and drinks. They sent us each home with an ornament. It was a lovely evening.

Family Craft Night

Our school had a family craft night tonight. Danielle Culberson and Bryan Bearrs both helped out in my room where we made sock snowmen. This was a craft Mom taught me when I taught first grade. The kids LOVED it and it was a huge success. I'll add the picture later :)

Christmas Cards

Our family friend, Lisa Walton, sent me this request. I thought it was an easy opportunity to do something special for a stranger...

Essentially, Lisa's high school friends, Chris Johnson, has just turned 40 and is entering hospice to cope with Polycystic Kidney Disease. They are asking that an extra Christmas card be sent to her. Here's a bit of the request :)

"A bunch of my high school friends have decided to help send her support and Christmas/New Year wishes on a massive scale. We’re asking for friends and family to send Chris a card, note, postcard, letter, picture, etc We’re hoping to inundate her with love and support and lift up her spirits during this difficult time. Think of the scene in “Miracle on 34^th Street” when they bring the bags full of mail into the courtroom for Santa, that’s what we’re hoping for!

"So if you can just mail out an extra card, or have your kids make one, we’d really appreciate it! Everyone loves to get mail, especially at Christmas time."

Her address is--Chris Johnson, 2209 Portofino Pl #2526, Palm Harbor, FL 34683

Bad Dog

Mom found and sent me this... when pets are part of your family, some disasters are hard to avoid.

Education Policy

Mom found this interesting article in Newsweek by Michelle Rhee, D.C.'s former Chancellor of Schools. Well worth checking out :)

The Candy Man Did...

Here's Tracy's "cooking"... (tempted? all the fun; none of the mess or calories)

The HORRENDOUS Hunt

Okay, so, the movie is actually called The Wild Hunt. It was part of the Anchorage International Film Festival-- whose tag line is "Films Worth Freezing For".

(I am only mentioning this film because it is John's birthday and he wanted me to talk about it.)

We saw it last night and it was horrible! (John didn't think so.) The film is about LARPing, which stands for Live Action Role Playing... this means games like Dungeons and Dragons, but acted out for real. The movie shows Erik who is upset that his girlfriend, Lyn, is spending so much time at these games. Erik follows Lyn to the middle of nowhere (which I think is in Canada) and tries to win her back. This sounds simple enough. And, as has so often been said, it's all fun and games (however dull) until someone gets their head bashed in. Disturbing.

Here's the film preview, which is free of blood, but not cussing or violence--so viewer discretion is advised. (Though, FYI, the sexual assault that's threatened in the preview does NOT happen... so, there's that.) Needless to say, if I'd watched the preview, I would have SKIPPED the film.



And here's one character's "shout out" to Anchorage:



Finally, here was the disturbing, but interesting short animated film called Millhaven, based on a story called The Millhaven Curse. It's by a Polish director and is subtitled.

Happy Birthday John!!!

Today's John's Birthday... hooray for John! I think he had a nice day overall. This is a picture of a picture from Jens' where we had dinner. May the year ahead be wonderful!!

Alyeska Pics

This Sunday John and I went to Girdwood to eat brunch and read at Alyeska. John took many great photos. Here are a few.

The Candy Man Can

Want to decorate a gingerbread man with no cooking or mess? Another teacher forwarded me this site, which let me "candy it up".

Gingerbread Man Decorating

Crazy!!!!!!!!!!

John's co-clerk and our ski coach, Michael, asked me to "friend him" so I could see our photos. To find him, I clicked on the "friends you have in common" button. OH MY GOSH!!! There are soooo many people I haven't talked to in FOREVER! I'm going to have to go back and start adding some of my friends... maybe after the new year, since I feel like getting back in touch en masse is going to require some effort.

Wow. It puts the movie "The Social Network" in better perspective.

Wow!

Dad just sent me this picture from our Annual Christmas-Eve-Eve Caroling Party. I think it only lasted for 3 years, but it was fun :)... and what I formerly thought was cold.

It's Easier

for me to find stuff on the blog, than in my email. So, these were my mom's contributions to our school cookbook and I thought I'd paste them here-- that way I knew right where they were :)

HEARTY CORN CHOWDER

2 cans creamed corn

1 can corn

1 pint milk or half and half

2 potatoes, baked al dente, peeled/cubed

salt and pepper to taste

Add if you want: chicken, cubed (I use the store-bought rotisserie chicken); real bacon bits

In a large pot, mix all ingredients together and heat through. For thicker chowder, mix about 3 Tbls flour with cold water and stir in to mixture, continue to heat thoroughly.

ENCHILADA SOUP

1 can refried beans

1 (larger than bean) can enchilada sauce

cubed chicken (I use the store-bought rotisserie chicken) or ground turkey

LOTS of cheddar cheese

Heat thoroughly. Serve with tortilla chips.

Pet Sitter

Hooray! We have a pet sitter for winter break :)

John's justice's judicial assistant, Sonja, needed a place for her family whose coming in town over break. They'd made arrangements with a friend, but the arrangements fell through. So, it's perfect, they're going to stay at our place and take care of the critters. What a relief to have this figured out! Good job John and Sonja :)

1 BELOW

One degree below zero! That's my new "first" coldest temperature... we write it on my classroom whiteboard even. It's very cool! --he he

Even if You Don't Give a Moose a Muffin...

...it still might come in your yard.

Yesterday I saw some weird tracks in our yard ...imagine a potato stamp getting dragged through ink. I suspected a moose, but the culprit was not to be found.

But, tonight when we came home, there were moose crossing the street.

The answer to the age-old question-- Why did the moose cross the road? is in fact, To eat your neighbors' trees.

I took a few pictures initially. They're not great... as they're in the dark and from a distance. These pictures are on the left.

I was fiddling around with the pictures-- trying to brighten them up--and Hayden needed to go out. John took her outside. She was finished and heading back in when she let out a loud bark... very unusual for her. Hayden came across a moose in our backyard! We didn't even give out muffins ;) John called me out and I took some pictures. These are at right and literally taken from a foot outside our front (back) door.

I came back in and John told me there was a baby outside. Both of us had totally missed it! They're just kind of giant brown lumps in front of dark bushes--so a "bit" hard to see. Out I went again to take pictures of the baby moose... this picture is at the bottom.

As you may have noticed, there was a lot of taking on and off of my jacket, which was worth it. Even if the pictures aren't great, it was cool to see them from so close.