Winter Images
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| Moonset at my rental in Mud Lake |
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| Sunset from the terrace above our home in Salmon |
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| Sunrise at the golf course |
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| Sunrise at the golf course |
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| Sunset from Lover's Lookout in Salmon |
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| The snow-capped Bitterroot Range |
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| Moon Rise from our home in Salmon |
Christmas Tree Lane
This was the first week of December at the Mud Lake Museum. It's very similar to a Festival of Trees event. We weren't even sure if it was going to happen, due to COVID restrictions, but I'm so glad we were able to! Because it was off school grounds, and the event was hosted at a private facility, there was more leniancy about restrictions, because at that point we were still under the Governor's orders to not have groups meet together with over 10 people (schools and churches were exempt from that, though). The elementary students were able to perform at it, one grade level at a time, and the students went on a scavenger hunt afterwards to find items on the decorated trees and gingerbread houses that were on display. I wrote and directed the 3rd grade program about Bells. All the students sang 4 songs, together, there was a read-aloud, 2 songs played on bells, and props. Students got to choose their special part: playing bells, reading, singing solo parts, or holding props, and every student had a role to play in the 15 minute program. They did a great job! The 4th graders sang a few songs, and the 4th graders from my class also performed a reader's theater titled "Frog Prince Continued".
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| 3rd graders performing |
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| Me with my 3rd graders (2 were absent) |
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| 4th graders singing |
The Grinch Challenge
Teaching 2 new grade levels, but teaching some previous students, forced me to come up with new ideas this year because I didn't want them to repeat any of the previous special projects I'd already introduced to the school. I came up with the idea of "The Grinch" challenge earlier in the fall, and was SO excited to introduce it to the students! The other 3rd and 4th grade teachers joined me in the challenge, too, which made it more fun for the students.
For 3 weeks in December, students were challenged to read certain categories of books that started with the letters in the words The GRINCH. Then they had full-page book reports to complete on each book (that I also created) to go along with a comprehension skill we've already taught them in school. For the word "The", we read together "THE Grinch" and did a character analysis book report. They read a GRAPHIC Novel to represent letter G, and the book report was about problem/solution. The R stood for a book with RED & Green on the cover, and the correlating book report was stating their opinion about the book. For "I", they read another book ILLUSTRATED by Dr. Seuss, and did a Compare/Contrast book report comparing this book to The Grinch that we'd already read together. They read a NON-FICTION book for letter N, and did a report stating the main idea and details from the book. The C stood for CHAPTER book, which took most kids a longer amount of time to complete, and the book report was summarizing the beginning, middle, and end. And the last book in the acronym was a HOLIDAY book for letter H, and the book report was about making text-to-self connections.
Students were also challenged to have their heart grow 3 sizes by doing R.A.O.K. (Random Acts of Kindness) at home, at school, and in the classroom. They were given 3 hearts of varying sizes to write each of their RAOK's on. When students completed all 7 books, all 7 book reports, and all 3 RAOK's, they were given an invitation to come to the Who-Ville feast. We discussed how The Grinch wasn't invited to go to the feast until his heart changed, and that's why it was important for students to also find ways to serve in addition to the academic part of the challenge.
At the Who-Ville Feast, we watched the new movie "The Grinch", and we served Who-Pudding, Roast Beast (bbq meatballs), Grinch Fruit Kabobs, and had a hot chocolate bar. Students were also asked to bring snack items, and the turnout was fabulous! After the movie, we had a gift exchange where students were asked to bring something they don't play with anymore (NOT buy any new gifts), because we talked about how even after The Grinch stole everything from the people of Who-Ville, they were still happy, and we can be happy with things we already have without needing new purchases (plus, I didn't want parents to feel more financial strain). We put the boys' gifts in a giant box, and the girls' gifts in another giant box, and students reached in and pulled out an item without seeing it. We unwrapped gifts, and we went around the giant circle and everyone announced what they'd received (so that whoever was the anonymous giver would know who ended up with their gift!). The last part of the party was a special guest came: The Grinch himself! Students split themselves up in groups of 3 and answered trivia questions that the Grinch asked, regarding their knowledge from the book. It was a fun month-long challenge, and a super fun party to end with!
In addition to all that, my own class also had a few Grinch projects we worked on all month. The students built a Grinch portrait using just milk and juice lids that they'd been collecting since October. I drew the outline of the Grinch on a large box, and they glued all the milk lids on. After they did the green lids for the Grinch, I hot-glued some black pipe-cleaners around the outside to outline some of his features. Then the students worked on using other various bottle lids to glue in rows around the outside to fill up the outside of the hot-water-heater box I'd brought from home. It took about a week for them to glue it all on, and the result was phenomenal!! The students also had a Grinch drawing/coloring contest, in which they used markers, watercolors, crayons, paint, and cotton balls. Their results were awesome! It was a magical, memorable month, and I loved seeing all my concepts and ideas come to life!
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| As students completed their book reports for The GRINCH challenge, they put up a gift around their personalized Christmas trees on the bulletin board. Each 3rd and 4th grade class had a similar display. This was a way for all the 3rd and 4th graders to see where each other was at, and produced friendly competition among them. As they completed the hearts for RAOK, they were also added to the display. |
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| 3 banquet tables full of food, including Who Pudding and Roast Beast (from the story)!!! |
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| Grinch Fruit Kabobs, courtesy of Mrs. Williams |
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| Gift-opening time |
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| Grinch Trivia |
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| The Grinch was played by our awesome Superintendent, Mr. Williams! |
Christmas Concerts
Both of the twins are in the Legacy Choir this year, but due to COVID restrictions, there wasn't any festivals or regional choir get-togethers this fall or winter. Mr. Anderson chose to have the choirs and bands all learn songs from Handel's Messiah, because he had more time to teach them, and he'd always wanted to have a Messiah sing-along in this community (there's never been one). He'd hoped to have a big sing-along and invite the community, but after the Governor's orders in November to limit gatherings to 10, he wasn't able to make that happen. Instead, he broadcasted all the choirs and bands singing their songs together, which was super impressive to watch, but I was sad that I couldn't watch it in person!!! They did amazing! Handel's work is not easy, and they sounded so good! In addition, he was still able to take the choirs to do their caroling at the beginning of December around town when the stores did their Stay-Open-Late shopping event, so I drove home to Salmon that evening to see them. I stopped in at Ace Hardware while they were there, and then Kanyon and I went to Real Deals, because our ward's youth was doing an outdoor hot-chocolate event with the missionaries, and there was an outdoor fire to encourage others to hang around and watch the choir when they arrived. It was so fun to watch them sing Christmas Carols, and to be out and about mid-week!
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| Jonah and Micah are both in the back on the right. |
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| Micah is in the back, on the right, next to Mr. Anderson. |
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| Micah is on the left, Jonah is on the right. |
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| Jonah is on the left, just past Micah's shoulder. |
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| This was a screen-shot of the Messiah event. This song included both the junior high and high school choirs, as well as the full orchestra, which included adult community members! |
Eve Graduates from BYU-I
There wasn't a formal graduation this year, sadly due to COVID restrictions, but our friend Eve Whall (who's from England, and her family became good friends with Josh when he served a mission there), still had an informal get-together with some friends of the family to celebrate, and we were honored that she invited us. Josh and I took some pictures in Rexburg with her wearing her graduation cap and gown, and then we went out to dinner at the Hickory together, too. Her mom ordered me a beautiful Christmas bouquet to say thanks for helping Eve the past 4 years, and it was such a thoughtful gift. We've really enjoyed getting to know Eve better, and to have opportunities to spend time with her and her family while she's attended school in Rexburg. We'll miss seeing her! She has a job in Utah that she's planning on starting her career with beginning in January.
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| I made her a candy/money necklace as a graduation gift. She wore it in some of her photos--like this one! |
Winter Solstice/Christmas Star
My friend Angie had a winter solstice fire at her house on the evening that the Christmas Star was also visible (when the planets Jupiter and Saturn lined up in the sky and appeared like a large star). We burned negative messages of things we wanted to resolve, and snacked, drank, talked, and laughed, and had a great time! There was an overcast sky that night, but thankfully, we were able to see the "Christmas Star" for just a few minutes after the sunset!
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| The "Christmas Star" was pretty low in the sky to the west. It's barely visible to the right of the flames! |
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| Burning the "yule log" with our messages attached. |
Christmas Lights
One of the dress-up days during the last week of school before Christmas Break was "Lights" Day.
Every year at Salmon High School, the four grades each take a corner of the commons area and decorate a Christmas tree. This was the junior class tree this year (the grade that Jonah and Micah are in), and I thought they did an impressive job!
I was happy to have the opportunity to drive around and look at lights several times this winter! Kanyon came with me one evening to Idaho Falls. There was this cool app that showed the locations of some of the county's best lighting displays, and the icons were different if it was an interactive display, a musical display, or just lights. The app displayed a map, which made it so easy to drive to the different locations. We drove to a home that had a lighting show in Ammon, then to a massive lights display in Idaho Falls, then to another home lighting show near Skyline (which I've seen before). He enjoyed it just as much as I did!
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| This home in Ammon had 2 digital trees as well as a projection on the wall of their garage. They had some fun music! |
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| This house was also in Ammon. Their yard was like Christmas Lights on acid. There was a TON of things going on! |
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| This display in Idaho Falls had MASSIVE trees! |
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| They had a circular driveway, and as you drove into it, the magic continued! |
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| The house was lit up beautifully... |
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| I love the musical light show at this home near Skyline. They changed some songs from last year's dispay. |
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| They also added a projection screen to the front of their home. |
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| This yard is in Mud Lake, and has grown each year I've lived there. |
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| This was such a cool display--you could drive a loop around the entire neighborhood, and a lot of the houses had these light-up pictures of the savior's life, and a scriptural reference written on them, too! The first house we saw also had a musical light show with spiritual songs, and my mom & I both loved it! |
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| The musical light show we went to in Logan also played the USU Aggies song, and it had a light-up Yoda and played Star Wars music, too! |
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| The puzzle on the table was the one I helped my mom finish after 11pm! It was a mystery puzzle, and you couldn't see the picture, but you could read a mystery, and try to solve the murder by the clues in the puzzle. |
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| I gave my parents the calendar gift Josh made. He did a good job! |
Class Gifts
My mom's neighbor passed away in September, and she had boxes of fabric pieces that my mom inherited. My mom sorted through them, gave some to different charities, threw some away, and kept some. Out of what she kept, she gave me a bunch of fleece scraps that I turned into scarves for my students. In years past for Christmas gifts, I gave my students knit gloves with candies inside them, but I didn't want to repeat the gift. The other 3rd grade teacher knits individualized hats for her students as her gift, so I thought this was a similar idea. Each student had a totally different color/design. I got some tiny boxes at a nearby store that was giving them away for free, and when I wrapped up the scarves in them, I just wrote the color(s) of the scarves on the wrapping, that way students could choose what they wanted, without even knowing what they were opening! As it turned out, the students were in a musical program that day and they were asked to dress up in 50's apparel, and some of my students wore my scarves during the program because it totally went along with their outfit! I loved how the scarves turned out! I was so grateful to my mom for the materials and for her idea, because it was a gift I could give, using my time rather than money (just as I'd asked the students to do for our Grinch party!).
SLIPPERY ROADS
Both Josh and Jonah had a slippery experience with their cards on the road near our driveway within 2 days of each other! Jonah spun out, and got the car stuck along the fence line to the right of the road. He took Micah's truck to work, and Josh and Micah pulled the car out later using the Jeep. Josh slid off the left side of that same spot in the road with his S-10 work truck, and pulled it out using his GMC (no pictures of that, though).
Decorating Gingerbread Houses
When I got home from Utah, and the boys finished their last day of school before Christmas Break, we got around to finally decorating "gingerbread" houses! Some years I buy those gingerbread house kits, but usually we just build them out of graham crackers. This year, I decided to try pop-tarts. I bought them in bulk at Sam's Club, and purchased a bunch of materials, and made the frosting. Ammon was already home on Christmas break, so he made them with us, and then the boys decided last-minute to have a group date, and a bunch of teenagers came over, and they built some, too! They turned out very creative! We had them on display in our home until after New Year's!
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| They played Wii Just Dance after the candy-house decorating was finished. |
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| L-R: Kanyon, Josh, Kala, Ammon |
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| Micah's is front left, and Jonah/Beth's is front right |
Our Boys
Jonah and Micah's pre-calculus class at school had an extra-credit project of making and decorating a cake for their classmate Janessa's birthday. Micah had an idea of making a dog, since Janessa likes them. It was a pretty stressful project, but he had a great idea, and with the help of his teammates, and his execution, it ended up winning!
Jonah has been growing his hair out, and it has some nice curls, but it gets weighted down after a few weeks. He finally let me trim up his bangs, which produced more natural curls, and he looked so handsome!
Kanyon came with me to watch the new Croods in the movie theater. I've really missed watching movies in the theater, and was ecstatic when River Cinemas finally opened back up in Salmon! I wanted to support their business, and was so happy that Kanyon agreed to be my date!
Ammon and Gabbie celebrated their 2-year anniversary of dating in December. They're a cute couple! We are so proud of them and the smart choices they are making in their relationship and their life goals!
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