A busy day:

At Gabriel's preschool program, he was the first to enter, dressed as an angel. Mom & Jackie were also there, so we took turns with Paloma and the cameras.
Afterwards, Santa was waiting to see the kids. We were planning to skip it since there was a long line and Paloma had just fallen asleep in my arms, but Gabe whispered in my ear as we readied to leave, "If you sit in Santa's lap, you get a candy cane!" Who could resist that?

Next, I went to "help" with the "Mega Party" at Carmen's school. When I got there, I was not assigned a job, but I was wearing my camera around my neck, so the leader said, "Why don't you take pictures?"







Not wanting to waste any of my "day off", I blew & raked leaves for an hour and a half when I got home. The early freeze had caused our trees to lose their leaves much sooner than usual (they usually fall after Christmas).

Next, it was time to finish getting a gift together (it took a week to find & buy Touch of Soy candles, but I finally got some that day by meeting someone in the Walmart parking lot) for the English department party that night. Charis got me started on those candles; she's given me 3 of them. I drew my young friend Kelly, so that's what I got for her.

Finally, I got ready for the party and David ended up making the grape salad for me. For those of you who have asked, here is the mix: 8 oz. of cream cheese mixed with one cup of sugar and chopped pecans (optional) mixed with red & green grapes.





I took Paloma to the Christmas party so I wouldn't stay too late. We had a nice time. Peggy read The Homeless Christmas Tree to us this year.

The next day is one of my favorite school days, the feast-of-the-year: the Coaches' Luncheon, where the coaches and their wives feed the whole faculty, staff & even retired colleagues.