Christmas in the South!

    This Christmas, Justin and I are thankful that we were able to participate in both of our families' traditional yuletide festivities.  

    The Parrott family gathers in the old tobacco barn, located behind my grandmother's 1854 farmhouse, every Christmas eve to barbecue a hog. This tradition began with my grandfather, who would invite several men from the community to join him in this manly activity and enjoy a nice BBQ sandwich or two. At some point the invitations were extended to female family members, also - and so the tradition began.

  As we were discussing the origins of the tradition, my aunts and uncles determined it has been approximately 20 years that the entire family has enjoyed pulled pork with homemade vinegar-based barbecue sauce.  I have to give my Uncle Mike and Uncle Brad credit, because I do believe this year's hog was one of the best, and most tender they've cooked.

     I guess you can call this a Country Christmas, if you'd like. We spent most of our time out doors, shooting guns, burning off a small patch of pinewoods beside the barn, and just laughing and enjoying the company.

Thankfully this Christmas actually felt like Christmas. The temperatures were perfect to gather around a fire, swap stories, and reminisce. The temperature hovered in the 40's all day, which seemed much more appropriate than last year's 70 degree day.

   As the night came, and only because it was time to eat, not because were actually hungry, my Uncle Mike cooked Lowcountry Boil (which is a tradition that was started only about 4 or 5 years ago). We used my grandmother's well-used dough bowl and a brand-new bowl that Justin made for my dad as a Christmas present to serve our supper.  My dad kept a close watch over his new dough bowl to make sure it did not disappear into someone else's car.

  After dinner, we all ventured back to the house to open presents. As we were all sitting in a circle, we were reminded of how blessed we are to have our family to share in these fun-filled traditions.

   On Christmas morning, we woke up early to open presents and enjoy a breakfast of grits and leftover barbecue with my family. By 8:30, we were on the road heading from Florence, SC to Perry, GA, which is about a 5 1/2 hour drive. We arrived at Justin's grandparents' house around 2:30, ready to celebrate Christmas all over again. 

   Justin's grandma cooked up a feast of turkey and ham, mashed potatoes, and homemade noodles, green beans and dressing, sweet potato souffle, and yeast rolls. After dinner we are made a few trips to the dessert table room before waddling to the living room to open gifts.

   Unlike my family, the Tyson's take turns opening presents one at a time, from the youngest to the oldest. Which I think is a pretty good idea! The living room was barely large enough to fit the entire family, much less the bounty of presents that we were all opening. We all had plenty of presents, but of course the family's youngest members had the most gifts of all. I guess it is just too hard to walk by the baby aisle and not want to buy something! :) 

Here are a few pictures to show off our nieces:

 Grandpa and Lillian

Nathan and Lillian

  Travis and Gabriela play a mean piano.

 Gabriela sitting in the same chair Granddad Tyson sat in when he was her size.

It's sad, really; you can tell how neglected they are!

It's Never Too Early For Cupcakes!

How lucky are my students? Incredibly lucky, I must say!

On Wednesday night, I made chocolate chip and sugar cookies to take to school on Friday for my teacher aides and students to celebrate the last day of school before the holidays. However, when I got home on Thursday afternoon, all but 3 of the cookies I had not already put in specific cookie tins were gone, eaten, devoured by Justin. I guess I can't blame him, they were wonderfully chewy! :)

So, last night's mission, on top of making cupcakes, was to make more chocolate chip cookies - lots of them.

This morning as I headed out the door, my arms were full of yummy goodies -  two cupcake carriers,  about 3 dozen chocolate chip cookies, and four teacher gifts makes for several trips.

When the kids strolled into the classroom this morning, I showed them the treats I had made for them but informed them we wouldn't be eating cupcakes until the following period. Only one of my students was not returning for that class so I told him, "Brendan, you aren't with us next period, however if you want a cupcake you may come by after school and get one." I was amazed by his reply, "I think I'll pass on the cupcakes, isn't it a little early for cupcakes?" 

First off, what kid doesn't think sugar is a major food group? Secondly, too early? When is NOT a good time to eat cupcakes (in the eyes of a kid)? 

Well, needless to say, the students in the following class certainly did not agree with Brendan and provided much needed compliments after hours of baking. I love my students, as much as they may make me want to pull my hair out, they always provide humor to my day. 

Mistletoe Hung Where You Can See...

 From one holiday to another, we're enjoying the ride. Some days it's harder than we imagined, sharing the holidays with both families and determining when we'll be where, but it goes without saying we have thoroughly enjoyed the time we do get to spend with family!

 Since Thanksgiving came and went too quickly, we decided to make Christmas last all month. Our first decoration we set up was the Nativity scene, since it is the reason for the season. And the second? Well, that was the mistletoe...because we'll take every excuse we can get to show affection. ;)

Last weekend we made a trip to Clayton to work on a few Christmas gifts and just do winter touristy things. After spending a rather large amount of the time discovering how much money one can spend in downtown Clayton, I decided to return home and see what I could find in the shop. Well, turns out, when boredom takes over you discover talents you never knew you had. In my case, it's carving. To be honest calling it a talent is rather exaggerated, but it did keep me occupied for quite sometime.

After Justin finished everything he needed his shop for, we headed out for some adventure. There were two items on my wish-list for the weekend...#1. Find a tree farm and cut down a tree! I guess it helps to have a husband who used to be a county agent in the mountains, because he knew just where to go.

  
    We only had to look at 3,000 trees in 23 degree weather before we found the perfect one.
 

   They had guys all over the tree farm with chainsaws and tractors with trailers, but we were determined to use a handsaw and manpower to bring it back to the truck. Justin's connections came in handy again when we paid for the tree. The owner happened to be at the farm and he was nice enough to give us a discount because Justin worked with him closely as a county agent for two years.  

   Second item on the to-do list: Goats on the Roof! No we are not turning our vacation home into a playpen for ungulates; it's a little tourist trap I have been dying to visit for the past couple years.

   After Goats on the Roof, we packed up and headed home in the Spirit of Christmas and ready to decorate our tree the following day. We decided to continue the tradition that we started last year and make finger foods and hot apple cider while we decorated the tree.
   

  The Pigs in a Blanket were my favorite, but we also had Summer Sausage with cheese and crackers and Justin's favorite, sausage balls.

In addition to our cheap, plastic balls from Wal-Mart, we decorated the tree with some ornaments with more sentimental value.

    The week before Justin and I got married, my mom gave me a box of beautiful glass ornaments. She had been saving these for a while and wanted us to have some nice ornaments to adorn our first tree.

   The next one is  a very special ornament to us. We bought this ornament in Niagara Falls, Canada. It was rather expensive for an ornament, so I was surprised when Justin didn't even bat an eye when I asked for it. Little did I know that we would be engaged later that night. :)

   The last one is our ornament from our honeymoon in Yosemite National Park. In the hustle and bustle of getting married, moving from one house to another and then into another...we thought we had lost it. Thankfully I found it few days ago hiding in our memory box.

   Our tree!

    As we were looking at Christmas trees I was also intrigued by the wreaths. All season long I have wanted one to hang on our door, but being the frugal couple that we are, we couldn't bring ourselves to spend $20-30 for one. After inspecting how some were made at the tree farm, we deemed it as a craft worth trying. We decided to make use of the lower branches of our tree to make one for ourselves. 

How to make a
 Homemade Wreath:

Materials Needed:
-Metal Coat Hanger
-Polyester String (cotton string will break when you pull it tight.)
-Fraser Fur boughs

 
1. Justin straightened a metal coat hanger and bent it into a circle and twisted each end around itself to hold it in place.

2. We took the branches we had taken from the bottom of the tree and cut them into ~12inch lengths.

3. Then we bundled about 4 of the twigs together and tied them onto the metal frame. Each one overlapping the last, like shingles on a roof.

  This was very simple and with two people it took about twenty minutes. However, I must warn you, if you pull too tight when tying the branches on, your pinkies may get blisters... or maybe that's just me. :)

As the Christmas decorations displace the Fall decorations, you may be left wondering what to do with the left over pumpkins? Since we were so busy around Halloween, we decided not to carve a pumpkin this year and still had a beautiful pumpkin sitting on our front porch. Justin about through it out before we came up with the idea of creating a...

   Pumpkin Santa:

Yes, we know it sounds kind of cheesy and his face does look a little like the Pringles man, but we are proud of the jolly old gourd that now adorns our front porch. :)

  Pumpkin Santa says, "Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas!"

'Tis the season for a little break...

Thanksgiving is over. It was a wonderful break from the routine of daily living, but along with Thanksgiving left my patience, my sanity, and my... Well, I am not going to elaborate quite yet. This time of the year, you expect students to be wild and far too ready for a two week vacation, but I did not realize I would be this ready, too. Thankfully, Christmas break for me and my fellow educators is only 11 school days away.

Recently, I was talking with a fellow blogger about how we sometimes wish we had created an anonymous blog so we could say whatever we felt and it couldn't be traced back to us... Sometimes those stories would just be hilarious tales we are too embarrassed for all of our close family and friends to know, and other posts would be a way to vent, which would, in many cases, probably put my job in jeopardy. 

Without going into much detail, because this is not an anonymous blog, of course, I will use my freedom of expression in a way that I cannot use at my place of employment.

Many of the teachers at my school have deemed me the diplomat. They often call me and ask if I can come help write an email to an angry parent, because they are not quite sure how to phrase how they really feel in a way that won't get them sued. I'm not sure how I've have been given this prestigious honor, but it is quite amusing. Maybe they just realize how many times a week I am called to the office for a parent conference and deem me as experienced (and it's only my first year!)?

 I have wonderful relationships with the parents of most of my students, but things can, and many times do, get a little strained in two situations: around interim/report card time and when their child is disciplined.

If you have been following my blog, you know there are a few things that college does not prepare a teacher for. As a continuation of a previous blog post, I would like to add just one more thing I was not ready for:

• Blame.

I was never told how many parents of students do not place the blame on themselves or even their own child for receiving failing grades, refusing to do work, or even punching another kid. Apparently, it is usually the teacher's fault. How do they rationalize this pointing of the finger? Well, they do it in many ways, but I'm not ready to disclose all of their little secrets on the world wide web quite yet.

I do wonder, though, when it stopped being the responsibility of the student to write their own homework down, and when it stopped being the responsibility of the parents to ensure they have completed everything assigned. I know sometimes students cannot be trusted to write down their homework (even though it is written on the board before they enter the classroom and it is a part of the classroom procedures), so our school provides several resources for parents to retrieve such information. However, when the grades come out and the student is failing a class because they are not completing homework, too often the parent turns on the teacher and says it is because their agenda is not being signed every day. However they conveniently overlook the fact that it is the students responsibility to take the agenda to the teacher to be signed. 

Maybe everyone is just a little testy at this time of year, because we were teased with a little 3 day break and then expected to go back to normal after gorging ourselves with too much turkey, pumpkin pie, and college football.

Don't get me wrong, I do have some awesome parents who are very supportive and are working hard  get their child the best education. These parents who suggest changes at home before immediately calling for an IEP meeting to complain are precious and worth a million. I am not trying to generalize and say all  parents are overwhelmingly hard to deal with, because that would be an incorrect statement. I enjoy working closely with parents and am glad to be consulted when problems arise.  I love my students--they offer great ideas and keep me laughing on a regular basis.