Thanksgiving Break is finally here, and I couldn't be more thankful for this time home with my family. It was such a great feeling, knowing I could go to bed on a Tuesday night as late as I wanted, and not have to worry about that horrible alarm waking me up this morning at 4:30AM. Reason #494 why I have the best job on the entire planet!!
Even though it's only five days off, I will cherish each moment that I get to spend at home with my kids and family, doing our sacred Thanksgiving traditions.
I was so excited about today, I was a little on the crazy side at work yesterday. My kids made several comments about how "weird" I was acting, being that I may or may not have broken in to a song and dance routine more than once throughout the day.
We had our Terrific Tiger assembly yesterday morning, and I danced my way to the gym as The Eye of the Tiger played over the loudspeaker. The kids thought it was hilarious, and it probably was. There was no minor head bumping to the beat involved. It was full on, Broadway style, moving and grooving down to that gym. Once the assembly was over, it was back to the classroom for some fun learning, and more singing and dancing.
I decided to do my Peanut Butter & Jelly lesson with my kiddos. But, before we could do the lesson, I instructed them to write the steps for me to make them a PB&J sandwich. I explained that I'd be following their directions to make them the sandwich, so they had to keep that in mind, and that's basically all the direction I gave. I gave them about 15 minutes to write the steps, and then the fun began.
Before we got underway, I pulled up the Peanut Butter Jelly Time song on YouTube and sang and danced my way through the song. The kids laughed so hard, and it was a great intro to the fun that was about to come.
The first student stepped up to the table and took a seat right next to me. I told her to read the directions to me word for word, and I was going to follow them to make her a sandwich.
The sandwich making went just like this:
Student: Get two pieces of bread
I got two pieces of bread and laid them on the desk.
Student: Put the peanut butter on the bread.
So, I put the jar of peanut butter on top of one piece of the bread.
The look on her face when I did this was quite comical, and the kids all realized very quickly what my intentions were with the directions they'd written. I'd be LITERALLY following each direction. It took her a couple of seconds to read the next direction, but I urged her along.
Student: Put the jelly on the peanut butter.
So, I put the jar of jelly on top of the jar of peanut butter.
Student: Put the other piece of bread on top.
So, I put the other piece of bread on top of the jelly jar.
The kids laughed so hard, and we had a quick discussion about using her steps to make the sandwich. I had the kiddos write down a few suggestions that they could give to make the steps easier to follow and then we moved on to the next student.
I had several kiddos that had their "sandwich" made in the same manner, but I did manage to make one jelly sandwich. The student had been very precise in explaining to use a knife to smear jelly on one piece of the bread, and putting the pieces of bread together. His downfall came when his last step read: "Now eat the sandwich". So, I put the sandwich in my mouth, and took a bite. The kids laughed so hard. He was so close, yet so far.
By the time I was done, I had smeared peanut butter and jelly on bread with my hands, I'd rolled the jars on top of the bread, and I'd placed the jars of peanut butter and jelly on top of the entire loaf of bread, and I'd squished peanut butter, jelly, and bread in my hands due to the instructions, or lack thereof. We all had such a blast, and the kids took away a lot from the experience. After we were all said and done, I did make the kids a PB&J sandwich using their new instructions, and it went much better.
The rest of the day was filled with just as much fun and laughter. It was so great to end out the short week on that note. The kids were happy, I was happy, and we were all ready for a few days off. Each kid gave me a big hug as they left for the day, and I went to work quickly getting ready to head on home.
I didn't get to leave until I put up my first Christmas bulletin board outside my classroom. I thought it'd be nice if that was all done for me before I returned. But I still managed to pull out of the school parking lot before 4:30PM, so that was awesome.
Once I got home, I was able to sit down and relax for the evening. I didn't have to worry about or do anything but sit on the couch and do some crocheting. It was AWESOME!!
Even though I was exhausted by 9PM, I refused to give in to my normal "school day" bedtime, and forced myself to stay up until 11PM. It felt really nice knowing that I could go to bed late and wake up whatever time I wanted to this morning. Of course, I wasn't that surprised when I woke up before 8AM, but I refused to get up. I laid there for about half an hour before finally deciding to get out of bed.
Today, I have a TON of stuff to do in order to get ready for tomorrow, but I'm not going to stress about it. I'm going to clean my house and I'm going to make a few preparations for tomorrow, but I'm also going to spend plenty of time sitting and doing absolutely nothing. I feel like I at least owe it to myself to get some relaxation out of this break.
I was so happy last night when I got a call from P-Momma telling me that she's definitely coming to us for Thanksgiving. We're going to have a family Thanksgiving, and I couldn't be happier or more thankful. It means so much to me that she wants to be here with us during the holidays, and I can't wait for her to be here tomorrow. It's such a nice feeling to know that I still have some family that wants to spend time with us on Thanksgiving. Of course, I'd be perfectly content with it just being the kids, Hubby, and me but it makes it that much more special when P-Momma is here, too.
Well, if I plan on spending some time relaxing before I get to cleaning and getting ready for tomorrow, I should probably get off here. I need to write up some homework before any relaxing can take place, so I'm going to get that out of the way now and then it's to the couch I go... for a little while, anyways.
I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving Eve. I know I will.
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