Quick Successions: New Mexico Edition

We opened a few presents on Christmas Eve, but most were reserved for Christmas Day. I got a new sewing machine. My other one died in August. I bought a new one and it broke on the first use. I sent it back and got a refund. I bought another one and chickened out on trying it and returned it. Then I ordered this one at a very nice price for Black Friday. I hope to open it when the holiday craziness is over.  I ordered Hannah and American Girl snack stand. She uses it more like a mini kitchen. She hasn't quite got the idea of using it with a doll yet. She has a doll that she got from a cousin, but she doesn't play with it much. But this set I bought her she visits everytime we go to the mall. Honestly, we both like playing with it. She was very good about helping me with presents. Here she is helping me with a bracelet from my mother. Hannah picked me out this necklace in a store. She brought it home and wrapped it. For dinner, I made sweet and sou...

Hannah and I enjoyed an abundance of Christmas crafting. This year we made gingerbread cookies. I haven't made them in about 5 years. At first, Hannah wasn't sure if she was going to like them, being a diehard chocolate chip cookie fan. But, one taste was enough to convince her.  She was also better prepared for gift wrapping responsibilities. We went shopping and picked out journals for each other and then we wrapped them together. I put the sticker on so she could write the name, but Hannah had other plans. I actually think her dexterity is still insufficient for her to write on that little tag anyway. It just looks funny to have that sticker and then "Mom" written below it.  When we were in a store Hannah saw this gingerbread house kit and wanted to buy it. We ordered a pizza one night and started it while we were waiting. Then we ate. Then we finished decorating. It sat as the centerpiece of the Christmas season on the kitchen table.  I got a...

The Saturday after Thanksgiving I took Hannah to a breakfast where Santa was the honored guest. The child ahead of her said he wanted a trampoline for Christmas and so when Hannah got on the jolly old elf's lap she said she wanted one too. Then when she got off, she started crying because she realized she didn't know what a trampoline was and she really wanted other stuff. I told her she could write him a letter and make the correction, but that would not do. So we waited 35 more minutes after all of the other children had visited The Claus so that she could amend her Christmas wish. It was worth it.  While sitting at the breakfast, she colored a picture and we listened to carolers. Back at home, she decorated a tree she picked out from the craft store and hung the ornaments all by herself. The next Tuesday, I took her to the festival of trees. There were lots of traditional trees and some very modern ones. Here is a glass bottle tree. Sesame Street....

November 18, I volunteered for to help Hannah's class do a Stone Soup activity where all the little kids brought vegetables, chopped them up, and shared them in the evening along with the folktale of Stone Soup where strangers come together with little, but sharing they all have enough to eat. My job was to help all the kids take a turn cutting and I was particularly charged with making sure that there were no tears about sharing tools and no severed fingers. I executed both jobs with aplomb.  Here is Hannah cutting her vegetables. I started the vegetables and then gave the kids safety knives so they could keep working. Hannah wasn't sure what it would be like to have her mom in her class, but all the kids liked me and so she decided she might as well too. At the end, she thanked me for coming. The day after the Stone Soup activity, I went to Minneapolis, Minnesota for the National Council of Teachers of English conference. It was 18 degrees in Minneapolis. I di...

I work 20 hours a week at a research center on campus. But now that I don't have classes I also am able to do some other things.  Occasionally I make it out to lectures. I am in the back of the room sitting by the interim department chair listening to a lecture about bilingual mathematical literacy strategies. This was in early October.  I am the president of the Curriculum and Teaching Graduate Student Organization. Part of my work is to find ways for the doctoral students to meet and socialize. Here are some of us at a local seafood restaurant when the CTGSO had our fall dinner. Because I research in the Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities I know many of the Special Education doctoral students. I don't usually get invited to their official gatherings, but I do get invited when they socialize on their own. One of the students had a between Halloween and Thanksgiving party and I went. It's dark, but my face is on the top right. I am...

This Halloween was warmer than the last and made for great trick-or-treating. Hannah also had a party at church, a pumpkin carving party, and a parade at preschool. For these events she wore minion garb and a skeleton costume. When we got home we sorted our candy and watched Halloween cartoons. She was really excited about Halloween this year and we read a lot of books and did some decorating. Honestly, we aren't party animals around here. This is festive for us.

Hannah was born during the Halloween season. At first I was really excited about this, but I have come to see how difficult it is to celebrate a birthday around a major holiday. In previous years, I have tried to throw parties, but there are always too many festivities and with the Kansas City Royals in the World Series there were even more evening and weekend events than usual competing for attention. But I was able to take cupcakes to her preschool class, which was very fun. We made them the night before and I taught a class and then took them to school. I actually shared snack time with the kids and took a few photos of Hannah. Then I left until preschool was finished. That night we went to a restaurant of her choosing, which served Mexican food. She likes it because she gets a balloon there. When we got back home we ate her cake and let her open her presents. Hannah gave me strict instructions to make her cake a surprise, so I made it at 11 pm after she had gone to ...