December's Here!!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I did. It was very busy, with travel to south Georgia and SHOPPING, along with a couple of Thanksgiving meals closer to home! It's time to get back into the swing of things, so here we go. As I look, I realize I have a month's worth of pictures to upload. I will be very busy today!!

Thanks for helping to make our Thanksgiving feast a success! We did have PLENTY of food, and I am thankful for that. I learn a little more each year, so next year, we won't have quite as much, but it was much better to have plenty than to run out! I thought the kids did a great job!! I need to give a special shout out and a HUGE thank you to Jeff Renner and Dean Castile, who returned all the chairs to all of their various places all over the church (even to the 3rd floor!!) and got the fellowship hall back in order. Also, I think we'd still be in the kitchen cleaning if not for Hope Mitchell and her sister Diane!! They stepped right in to help and we got it done by 2:00. I can not tell you how much I appreciate your help!!!! I could not have gotten it done without you!

As December begins, we are going to begin to learn about Christmas and why we celebrate it. We are also going to learn about how different families around the world celebrate at this time of year. If you or someone you know has some unique traditions you would like to share, please let me know. This can include traditions right here in America or from around the world. This is not going to be a time that we discuss different religious beliefs, as we are a Christian preschool, and we will be focusing on the meaning of Christmas being the birth of Jesus. Instead, this will be a time to learn about different customs - Santa Claus, toys left in shoes, the Mexican celebration (I can't remember the name) that ends with a pinata celebration, etc. Please help make this fun by sharing your customs with us.

The parade is right around the corner!! We will be working on this a good bit this week. Robbie's dad has a trailer, and Caylin's dad is building a frame for us to use with it. We will be hanging lights from this as well as covering everything in snow! The best idea I can think of now to keep all of these lights lit is to use a few battery chargers. There may be a better idea. I'm open to suggestions! I have one charger (the kind that you can use to charge a car battery). If you have one we could use, please let me know. Also, we need lots of white lights. If every family sends one or two we should be in good shape. Also, we are going to need LOTS of white fiberfill (snow). I bought some at WalMart for $3 and $4 this weekend. I'd appreciate every family sending a bag or 2 for this as well. Also, I'm hoping you got the note that told you this on Tuesday, but my internet was down, so I didn't send it in email. The kids need white sweatsuits, at least white sweatshirts. I understand that this can be hard to find. I will check with Sideline Sports Monday morning to see if we have time to order some and get them here. Please let me know if you bought one or if you need one. I am not sure how much they will cost. I will check with him and let him know. I think they are $5 or $6. We will use these for the parade and then, I think we will keep them to make our Christmas sweatshirts. Please let me know as soon as possible whether or not your child will be in the parade. I think it is at 6 pm, but I will confirm that Monday morning as well. There is not a while lot we can do ahead of time, but we will need some help putting this all together. I am thinking it makes the most sense to work on this Friday afternoon/evening, but please give me your input on this. I figured that, by doing that, if I needed to run to get anything else, I could do that Friday night or Saturday morning.

Tuesday night is our Family Fun Night at Destination Book Fair. I hope you will all plan to come for this. We will have some games, storytelling, snacks and shopping! If you would like to volunteer to bring a snack or to read a book, please let me know. We can use anyone who is willing. This is a fun way to have some family time and get to know some of the other parents as well. Please invite your family and friends to come out and enjoy this as well. The time for this is 6-8 pm. You can come and stay for as long (or as short) a time as you'd like to. We have allowed the kids to go to the book fair and put some books on a wish list that might make your shopping easier, but there are also LOTS of books that they haven't even seen, which is why I encourage you to come look around. There are books for all ages. Also ,we have created wishlists for the classrooms. These are books that we will purchase with the profit from the book fair sales. However, if you would like to purchase one or more of these for us, then we would love that, and your child's name will be in a book at Preschool for a long time to come. This helps us in a few ways. 1 - We get a book we'd like to have for our classroom. 2- We can use the $ we would have used to buy that book to buy other books or resources instead. 3 - This adds to our overall sales, which is how our profit is determined. It helps you by 1 - allowing your child to give something to their class 2 - adding to your child's classroom library and 3 - if you keep up with this, it can be a tax write off!! So, everybody wins! The book fair will be open all week for you or others to come in and shop. If you have friends with young children who may not have been able to go to a book fair, please invite them to come anytime this week.

The last week of school brings lots of fun celebrations. Thursday, Dec. 17 is our Christmas program and party. The program will be in the sanctuary, followed by a party downstairs, where, hopefully, Santa will make an appearance. (This only happens if the kids do their best upstairs!;-) The following parents are responsible for the party afterwards. 1. Amy Johnson 2. Angelia Davidson 3.Mandy Anderson 4.Heidi Amundson 5. Joni Taylor 6. Jennifer Leebern. There will be a lot of people at this party. I would suggest keeping snacks simple. These parents will need to be responsible for setting up for the party, making any plans for something to go on while kids wait to meet Santa, goody bags for the kids and clean up. Thanks! I understand that we are already running into a scheduling conflict on this evening, so I am working on figuring out what time we will have our program, so as to cause as little trouble as possible.

On Friday, we will have a birthday party for Jesus. The parents on this party are 1. Jessica Mitchell 2. Cathy Maddox. It seems like I added another parent to this list, but I don't have the paper copy at home. I will check when I get to school. If you know I added you to this party, please let me know. This is a small but very important party. This is when we remind the kids one more time the real reason we celebrate Christmas. We will have cake and ice cream, sing some songs, read the story of Jesus' birth and exchange gifts. The kids drew names on Tuesday. If you did not get your note, please pick it up Monday morning so that you will know whose name your child drew. I am not sure about the younger class, but in my class, girls drew girls and boys drew boys. We have decided to ask that the kids exchange books this year. I'd like for everyone to get a book for around $5, but I ask that you PLEASE do not spend more than $10 for this. I like for the kids to enjoy giving to each other and to understand the value of a book.

Assuming that the weather will be nice, we will go caroling down Main Street. This is a fun time, and we just hope hope hope that it is not too cold!! The kids will wear their Christmas sweatshirts for this.

Any of you are more than welcome to join us for any and all of these events.

Well, I think that's all I can think of for now. Check back this week for LOTS of pictures! See you Monday!