It's a Christmas Miracle!

Hello friend and family,

After the prompting of 3 important women in my life (Mom, Julie White, and Mrs. Handy) to update my blog, I have decided to concede.

THANKSGIVING
For Thanksgiving, my roommate Kelsey and I headed to an all-inclusive resort for 4 days of sun, surf, pools, snorkeling, eating, tanning, American TV. Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot! :) I enjoyed relaxing, reading multiple books, wearing my bathing suit, eating so much food, watching American TV, and enjoying spending time with Kelsey! (you can check out pictures on my Picasa site...including pictures of the "Taino" dancing) The Taino people are the indingenous people of the Dominican. It was definitely an experience that I won't soon be forgetting!


CHRISTMAS PROGRAM
After many heated debates and deciding against singing Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer (I never realized how inappropriate that song is! especially at a Christan school!) my class and I decided to sing a medley of songs. Michael W. Smith's Prince of Peace and the boys sang N'Sync's Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and the girls sang Mariah Carey's Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child and then we ended with Prince of Peace. It was so great! My kids were nervous, which was super cute. :) They did a great job singing (kind of loud). Funny story: during the middle of the performance, one of my boys walked off stage. yep, just walked straight off. came and told me that his stomach hurt. I just said, "okay, just go sit down over there (on a bench)." Other than that, the performance went really well. Highlights: the 2-year olds "danced" to a song called Mi Burrito Sabanero (super cute!) and one first grace class sang "Mamacita, Donde Esta Santa Claus" and the other first grade sang "Jingle Bell Rock" very sassy, if I may say so! :) The fifth graders rapped an awesome song. Then the high schoolers danced to Rumba. All in all, it was definitely a successful program!! Brooke has some pictures that I will be commandeering soon, as well as a video of my kids. Hopefully I'll get that on my Picasa site soon!

DOOR DECORATION

Every year at JCS, they have a door decorating contest and then get judged based on Christ as the central theme and creativity. After MANY days of brainstorming, my class finally decided to split the door into two parts: Santa on a Four-Wheeler and Jesus being baptized (based on Luke 3:22) I must say, it was difficult not to give my input as my students were working (sometimes I did anyways...) I must say that the creation of our door turned out well. My students kept saying, "It looks so ugly. Why didn't you do it for us?" But I think they enjoyed being able to decorate their own door (for the first time). (see the pictures on my Picasa site!)



And now I'm back for semester 2 in the DR. the million dollar question right now is if I will be staying another year. And for all of you wondering, join the club. :) I have no idea what I want to do next year. I'm waiting for God to tell me where He wants me (as soon as I decide to listen to Him!). So there's where I'm at. We have to decide by February, so I've heard, so I will let you all know as soon as I figure it out myself! :)