12/12/12

Early this morning I met the Love Does girls for our Secret Santa gift exchange. Two weeks ago we all drew names and we've been working on crafting something for our partner. We brought all the gifts in black trash bags today so we wouldn't know who brought what. Then after we opened them up we could try to guess who had made our present.

 

I was so impressed with what all the girls had created. The first thing unwrapped was a quilted tote bag. There were picture frames, a painted letter, a photo collage, a painted canvas and two fleece blankets. I loved seeing the girls' creativity and was so excited to get my present from Anna.

 

Anna gave me a photo collage of all my favorite things. Can you spy a quote from Love Doe, Taylor Swift, love tanks, Young Life, a potholder headband, 10 Minute Writes and an FBC sweatshirt? I'm putting it on the windowsill in my classroom so I'll be sure to see it everyday.

 

The pen pals my 8th graders have been writing to all semester are coming to visit us at school tomorrow. We've been exchanging journals back and forth about once a week. Many of the residents are bringing gifts with them so I wanted to make sure all of my kids had something to give as well. We spent our class writing them letters and then crafting different holiday ornaments and picture frames. I'm so excited to see all the pen-pals together tomorrow afternoon.

To celebrate 12:12 on 12/12/12 we had a dance party in class. #yolo right? I challenged by students to send 12 selfies, instagram 12 pictures, do 12 jumping jacks every hour, high-5 12 people and dance in their chair at 12:12.

Tonight I got to go to dinner with Emily and Eric. We drove all the way up to Westfield to get pizza from BoomBozz because it's so delicious. Our first choice was their famous chicken, potato and onion pizza and then Eric chose a carnitas fajita pizza. Delicious.

One of the best books I've ever read is The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. She spent a year exploring and testing different strategies to become happier, many of which I've introduced into my own life. She has recently published a second book titled Happier At Home. While Eric was searching through Anthropologie for a Christmas gift for his cousin, I flipped through Rubin's new book. This page caught my eye:

*Back at home tonight I told Emel and Colleen about the jumping project and they immediately began to jump. I think this will become a new staple to our apartment culture.

The best surprise in the mall was running into Maddie Wojtalevciz, one of my old Tecumseh campers. She spotted me first and yelled, "Is that Sarah Wright?!" down the long hall. I did a little jump when I realized who it was and ran to hug her. Maddie is one of those girls that never ended up working at camp (at least not yet) but will always be one of those that is so special to me. These days she's at IU and actually rooming with one of my graduated Young Life girls.