Last night was the annual Delano Christmas party.  Lots of fun.  We had leek & potato soup, assorted crackers, cheese & meats, fruit salad, Parker House rolls (I baked them) and pumpkin pie for dessert. We exchanged gifts and KISS Potato Head got a new home with Denise.  She was the original “giver” of this gift, several years ago.I’m not sure she was really happy to get him back.  We had “poppers” earlier in the evening, which is why she is wearing a crown.  She’s really NOT royalty.  We played Apples to Apples until after 10 PM.  Which made for an exciting morning for me.  I turned the alarm off and fell back asleep.  When I woke up at 6:35, I barely had time to take Lucas out for potty time, feed the animals, get dressed, take Lucas back out for one last potty break, and go to work. I wasn’t late, but it was close. I’d hardly clocked in when I had my first 2 students–one puked on the bus and the other had a bike wreck on the way to school.  It was foggy and misty out.  Places to the north had snow.  Almanac predicts: Snowy periods, cold  for Dec 17-24.  That sounds about like what the weatherman is predicting. 

The really BIG event this weekend was:  JAX IS WALKING!  No photos of him stepping out solo yet, but I’m sure they are coming. 

When we (teachers & staff at RMS) first started hearing about the shooting in CT, I felt very uneasy.  My office faces the bus “drive thru” and has 2 very large almost ceiling to floor windows (single pane, aluminum frame).  I wanted to pull the blinds, but also needed to be absolutely “normal” because the students were unaware of these events.  So the blinds stayed open and I was nervous, sitting at my desk with my back to the window.  It was a busy day, with 5 or 6 students in my office on several occasions.  I know we are thousands of miles from CT, but who knows where/when such a tragedy might trigger a “copy cat” shooter.  I’m looking forward to my desk being moved to the far wall and rearranging my office on Wednesday.  Now more than ever. 

The Farmer’s Almanac seems to be agreeing with the forecast for the next few days… “Dec 14-16 Thunderstorms, then flurries, cold”.  We are supposed to get thunderstorms tonight and a chance of flurries on Monday.  

Tonight’s supper was the last 2 tilapia filets (baked) with left-over green bean casserole and (also) left-over couscous.  Milk & yogurt were the only things I got at the grocery store on the way home.  We still have black beans & cornbread in the fridge for at least one meal this weekend.  

On the MUST DO list for tomorrow:  make trophies for the Kiwanis basketball tournament; work on Jax’s Christmas stocking; cut out quilt squares for my mom; write our annual Christmas letter.  If it is raining and miserable outside, getting these tasks done will be much easier.

We are having frosty mornings, which I don’t mind.  I love the sunny afternoons, with temperatures in the 40′s.  I can’t even say that rain Friday afternoon/evening bothers me.  We need the rain. 

Wednesday, Karol had friends over to her house for a little pre-Christmas get-together.  It was fun to catch up with friends I don’t see that often. 

Tonight was the Kiwanis Christmas dinner and auction.  It was potluck.  I took green beans.  I’m not sure who provided the ham. There was corn, salad, deviled eggs, potatoes, sweet potatoes and lots of desserts.  I ate too much…that seems to be happening on a daily basis. No one was shy about going thru the buffet line. 

After we ate, Dennis & Dave auctioned off the donated gifts (fund raiser). I got a “perfect meatloaf” pan–which has a “slotted bottom” for the grease to drain down into, a jar of Connie Pirtle’s cranberry jalapeno jelly, and some bath salts, lip balm & scented candle.  It was a good time, and there were mostly good gifts.  A few gag gifts, but that is to be expected.  

Yesterday and today morning my office was a vomitorium.  A student stepped into the office, look at 2 kids puking in trash cans, said  ”I don’t need none of those germs”—and left.  Guess he decided he was healthy and wanted to stay that way. 

It’s been 40-ish and drizzly all day.  Now we are just waiting to see if there will still be moisture when the temperature gets below freezing tonight.  No accumulation of course.  The ground is too warm.

The muffins were a big hit at Chat n Chew.  I’ll be taking the left-overs to work with me tomorrow.  People in the office will appreciate a home baked treat on a Monday morning.  

This afternoon I wrapped gifts and did some reading.  Listened to Christmas carols and enjoyed the decorated Christmas tree.  I especially enjoyed this song.  https://soundcloud.com/jaime-green-1/happy-merry-joyful#play   Also did laundry and the mundane house keeping chores that must be done.  Ironing might happen later…or not.

Baked tilapia, peas, & couscous with pickled green tomatoes for supper. I tried a grill rub, but it was a bit overpowering for fish. It would probably be good for grilling beef or pork…as in outside on the grill.

Today is the first day of Chanukah.  2nd Sunday of Advent. 

It’s been a busy Saturday.  The high was 51 early this morning and it’s been slowly dropping. It rained overnight and humidity at 99% all day.  It’s 43 now.  Snow flurries predicted tomorrow.  After supper (ham & beans with cornbread) Dennis and I put the ornaments on the tree. Lots of memories, home made ornaments, ornaments given to us by friends and relatives, and ones from places we’ve gone on vacation.  It hasn’t been quite the same without any of the kids to help us this year. Now that the tree is up, I can start wrapping presents.  

I got a crazy idea this morning.   I decided I’d make 4 different kinds of muffins for Chat n Chew tomorrow.  I started with cranberry orange, then lemon poppy seed, pumpkin and finally blueberry.  I thought I had everything I needed, but Dennis made a run to the grocery store for more butter…and got buttermilk, skim milk and eggs while he was there.  He has to make biscuits for “group breakfast” on Tuesday, so now he has all the stuff he’ll need for that.

It looks like KISS Potato Head has made a new friend…Mr. Christmas Duck. KPH is quite annoyed with us for not taking him to see the Elvis Impersonator.  He is definitely looking for a new home.

Tonight Dennis, Vicki, Fred & I went to see “Elvis” at the Ozark Actors Theatre.  It was a fun performance.  Great band, good Elvis imitator, with lots of fun songs and good audience interaction.  Elvis and his wife “Marilyn Monroe” live in Rolla.  I’m not sure if all the people were from the area, but most are.  

Dennis spent most of today hanging out with Jax.  Lucky dog.  It sounds like they had a lot of fun.  Jax and his mom…not sure if this was before she left for work or when she got home.   I don’t think this “baby proof” gate is going to last long.  Jax is smart and determined.

The local weather forecast is predicting snow flurries on Sunday, the 9th.  We’re not exactly in sync with what the almanac said.  We were supposed to get rain, then flurries and cold weather Dec 1-8.  We had a few cold days but it’s been pretty mild the last few days.  Almanac has Dec 9-13 with showers and mild.   Oh, well.   It would be nice if we got a good rain at some point.  The Mississippi River is so low that barges are having problems getting cargo down the river.  I heard one report that this year’s drought was as bad as the one in 1934.  The wind hasn’t been blowing and hopefully changes in farming practices would keep us from having another “dust bowl”. 

The basketball season is still young, but so far both the boys and girls (St. James Tigers) are undefeated.  Woohoo!  Went to the boys game tonight, after the Rolla School Nurse Christmas party (after school).  They easily beat Steelville, so it was a good opportunity to get some photos of players who don’t usually see much playing time. I do believe our player got a charging foul on this particular play…

Influenza has hit the area…with diagnosed cases showing up in the schools.  Also some nasty stomach viruses–one of the elementary nurses “went down” and was absent today and will probably be absent again tomorrow.  So far RMS has no confirmed influenza, but who knows what tomorrow will bring.  Today was mostly sore throats–lots of warm salt water gargles.  Today a 5th grader told me all about the “automatic bomb” that the United States dropped on Japan to end “the war”. 

While I’m working tomorrow, Dennis (lucky dog) will be hanging with Jax while Sara (and Matt) are at work.  Not sure what happened with the regular babysitter, but I’m so happy for Dennis.  Just wish it was me instead of him.  He has strict orders to take lots of photos.

In keeping with the spirit of the season, I’m reading An Amish Christmas.  It’s a series of short stories/novellas set in a (fictional) Amish community–very uplifting and positive. 

I had my first experience with puff pastry this afternoon.  I dashed home from school to make pesto star appetizers for First Wednesday Club at 6.  I got the pastry rolled out, brushed it with pesto and sprinkled grated parmesan cheese, and then tried cutting it with a star shaped cookie cutter.  Not only did it not cut well, I could see there was going to be a lot of waste–not like cookie dough or biscuit dough that you can smush together and roll out again.  So I used my pizza cutter and did squares.  I must have handled the dough too much or something because only about 1/4 of the squares “puffed”.  I still took them, and people ate them.  All the appetizers were wonderful. It was good hanging out with friends and catching up on adventures.  Last night I made apple pie “shots”—you cook down apple cider, apple juice and add sugar & apple pie spices.  After simmering for a few hours, you let it cool. Then add Everclear.  It’s quite delicious and could be deadly if you had more than one or two shots.  I shared my shot and it was plenty.  That’s the trouble with me and alcohol…I’m easily incapacitated.  

Today was an interesting day at work.  This is my 5th year at RMS, and I took the my first step towards “owning” my space.  My office was poorly designed.  It originally had 2 cots and curtains hanging from the ceiling to isolate/give privacy and that took up have the room.  One of the cots was gone by the time I started working there, but the curtain remained, taking up a lot of room, even though it was pulled back and held out of the way (sort of) by a chair.  Another wall has the sink and built in cabinets.  With a door entrance from the hall, and another from the office, the only place for my computer was in front of a large, single pane, aluminum frame window.  My computer has to have the screen facing away from middle of the room to keep students or parents or teachers from possibly seeing private student information…and also so my back isn’t to the doors.  So I freeze during the winter.  Cold air pours thru the window.  Over Thanksgiving break, the curtains were removed and taken away (2 nurses at other schools wanted them).  I hope to get my desk moved to the other side of the room and have the cot & waiting chairs along the windows. My goal is to get this done over Christmas break.  That would be a wonderful Christmas gift.  In the past, nurses have stock-piled seldom used supplies, which I hope to eventually work my way thru.  I’m going to be very careful when I order for next year, and not get more than I actually need for a year supply.  Downsizing, so to speak.  Which could lead to removing one of the big ugly metal cabinets in the room as well.  We shall see.  One baby step at a time. I have the school maintenance people willing to do all the heavy lifting for me, but am getting negative vibes from the tech people who would have to unhook and rehook the computers…and that means running the blue cable across the ceiling and using the outlet on the other side of the room to plug things in.  We shall see how it all turns out.

Tomorrow is St. Nikolaus day.

A “cold” front has moved in and cleared away the clouds.  I had to wear a jacket and my nose & ears got a bit chilly out for the last walk with Lucas. The stars were shining brightly.  I missed them the past several days, with all the clouds and rain.  NOT complaining because we need the rain.  The next couple days will be more like December–30′s at night and 50′s during the day. That is still probably above normal.  Over the weekend more rain which may turn to snow.  No accumulation.

Brenda & I were “twins” today.  Tomorrow is “Holiday Mania” and jeans day.  So I’m wearing my favorite red holiday sweatshirt with my jeans.  The sweatshirt has a dog, cat & penguin ice skating on a pond–embroidered.  I have several pairs of shoes, but none of them are red…some red sparkly shoes would be the perfect touch to the whole outfit…sigh.  I don’t even have an old pair of shoes that I could cover in glitter.  I’m sure I have glue and red glitter somewhere…   The RMS maintenance/cleaning people will be glad I’m not going to leave a trail of red glitter everywhere I go tomorrow.  

I finally made it to a girls basketball game.  They won.  They have a good team this year.  Only 2 seniors, and one of the better players is a freshman.  I took a few lot of photos.  I think the Lady Tigers were ahead most of the game–it was close the first quarter, but they were ahead by 14 at the half.  They lost most of their lead in the 3rd quarter but came back to win by at least 10 points.  I haven’t been following the girls closely the past few years; but I’m impressed with what I saw tonight.  They are a team with no stars.  

Today was Pajama Day.  I wore my red pajamas and matching robe.  I was a bit warm…  It was in the 70′s again today.  We had a few sprinkles last night and I think more showers are in the forecast tonight.  Tomorrow is Twin Day. Brenda is supposed to be with me. We are wearing black pants with white shirts and our “nurse” scarves.  They actually have nothing to do with nursing, just that they were used as a “uniform” to identify people in charge at a nursing convention last year.  Neither of us went, but we had a nurse who went buy the scarves for us because they were pretty–rainbow-ish and fluffy.