Teacher Gifts

I just finished making my first ever batch of chocolate truffles!! Half were rolled in cocoa powder, the other half in powdered sugar. I think they will look very nice in their individual liners inside cute little Christmasy tins! The specials teachers and coaches are getting these truffles, while the two main teachers are going to get my Mom's famous Sherry Cake. I try to think about what I (as a teacher) would like to get, and food is always a good choice. Soaps and mugs, not so much. I have a lot of those! Christmas ornaments are nice too, especially if they are home-made by the student (or their mom!) Last year we, and I use that term loosely, painted these cute wooden Santas and Christmas Trees. I admit- I try to spend as little money as possible on teacher gifts. It can get crazy if you count everyone- homeroom, gym, music, art, bus driver, coaches, paras, and Ukie school and Plast. That's why I bought all the ingredients on sale, or at Aldi's (awesome discount grocery store) a little bit each week starting about a month ago so as not to get socked with a huge bill. This is totally one of those things, one of those holiday details (gifts, Secret Santas, cards, tree decorating, etc.) that just gets done and usually falls on the mom's shoulders. The mom is the one, and usually she gets no recognition for it. Whatever. I remember one Christmas about nine years ago (ahem- you do the math as to how old the kids were...) and Mr. Dad says- "What did you get my parents?" HAHAHAHAHAHA! I said "What did YOU get MY parents??" Stuff just got done. No thank yous, no appreciation, nada.

Some of you, or rather the two of you who are reading this may be wondering what happened with the gas smell last Friday. Well, I turned off the gas when the first man left, and it slowly got quite cold in here, even for me. I took my daughter to swimming, picked up pizza and fried calamari with my son, ate that, then went back for my daughter and ended up in a freezing house. The second gasman didn't come until about 9:00 that night. It took him about half an hour to switch out the whole meter. We are gas free, and all is good- for now... What else will happen in the next week to cap off this crappy year?