Holiday Year End Wrap-Up

We've had a wonderful Christmas holiday and a full two weeks. And now, we're just hours away from the new year. I'll probably be asleep when the clock actually hits 12 midnight. Now for a little recap as we look ahead to the new year.

During the week prior to Christmas, I spent several days finishing last minute shopping, baking a few goodies for everyone to eat, wrapping last minute packages, cleaning a bit and getting ready for company, and taking in a few RCS basketball games at the NEA Tournament.

Bryan was already home for the holidays and spending quite a bit of time duck hunting while we waited in anticipation that Micah and Rhyne would get home as well. Our formal celebrating began on Friday night as we enjoyed dinner with the Putman's. Here are a few shots of the evening.

I've prepared Christmas Eve brunch for my family for several years now. We've began inviting the Putman's to come join our family for this celebration.

Since Christmas fell on Sunday this year, we went to the morning service and then everyone gathered at Mom and Dad's. We started off with lunch and then moved on to enjoying Christmas presents.

After celebrating with my folks we headed to Brookland to celebrate with the Elder's.

Last stop of the day was back at our our house.

Micah and Rhyne were at our house a couple of more days. Bryan joined Micah and me shopping at the mall the day after Christmas. Tuesday, Micah and Rhyne had individual plans as did Bryan and myself. I went to a book signing and Barnes and Noble related to RCS, then Bryan joined me for another RCS basketball game at the NEA Tournament. We called Micah and Rhyne and all joined up for supper at TaMolly's. Wednesday, they packed and headed home to New Orleans. I began taking down Christmas, packing it up and cleaning house. By Friday afternoon, things were almost back to normal.

T0day we spent most of the day in the yard raking leaves and burning. It looks much better, but Collin and Bryan will finish up Monday. It's hard to believe that it is sunny and 60 on the last day of December.

Bryan went hunting early this morning. Look at the trophy goose he got.

He had a great time and was pretty proud of this.

And last, allow me to introduce you to what is probably going to be the newest members of our family. They showed up last night and Collin has taken them in. They have made themselves at home pretty quickly. They aren't named, but we'll keep you posted.

Here's wishing you a Happy New Year.

Marcia

PS. A few individual pictures were deleted due to technical difficulties, so I had to redo. They are the ones at the top.

Christmas Hustle and Bustle

The last few days have been very exciting. I don't know if I accomplished any work at school during the week, but it was certainly festive. Beginning on Monday, parents began bringing in all sorts of trays filled with goodies to eat. The counter in our little office kitchenette area was covered. The staff was in an out all day and everyone would grab a snack when they had a minute and were passing, myself included. Come Tuesday, there were fresh trays when there were still a few leftovers from Monday. The week went on like this. Every day there were new trays delivered. I don't know if I have ever seen so much food. I certainly never experienced anything like this in public school I wish I had made a picture, but alas, I didn't think about it until it was too late.

Not only did we have all kinds of food, but presents began arriving on my desk from first one and then another. Some from families, some from the staff, and the board presented everyone with a whole ham. Guess what I'm serving for Christmas Eve dinner to my family!
This is a picture of some of the gifts I received. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful this kindness was and how meaningful. Once again, maybe in elementary, but as a high school teacher, I didn't receive gifts at school. Included in the loot were two beautiful poinsettias, a lighted figurine of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, two books, three beautiful tree ornaments, necklace and matching errings, a bowl along with bath gel and lotion, a vase and towels, a gift card to Long Horn's Steak House, and a cheese board with dip mixes.

I love this board. I am drawn to anything with my initial on it and this is a favorite Bible verse that I have used as a print in another part of my house. The spreader has a cross engraved on the top edge.

My car was loaded down when I left Friday afternoon with all my gifts, the ham, and a variety of left over goodies. Bryan had to help me get everything in the house. On Saturday morning, Collin took me shopping in Southhaven. We discovered a mall there and spent the day.

We began at Gordman's and found several things. It isn't actually attached to the mall. Of all the stores there, we found a Kirkland's which is one of my favorites and I either have to travel to Memphis or go see Micah to shop at one. We found several things there as well. There were lots of fun places to browze and we had a successful day.

No day would be complete without a good meal and Collin chose his favorite place for his part of the trip.

There was lots of Christmas items in every store and outside of Kirkland's, we found this sidewalk display. Collin caught sight of these stockings and he said that we should buy one for Ben. It would take a big one to hold all his presents. I know Micah will be so excited.

These last three days have been very hectic. I went out Monday to finish some last minute shopping, but plans changed, and basically, I bought a ton of groceries. Yesterday, I went to town again, and this time finished my shopping. I left out early so I could meet my buddies for lunch.

Meet Jeannie and Vera. We met at Dairy Queen and exchanged our gifts. Our visit was short and sweet, but we squeezed it in. I had to get to Paragould to get my oil changed and get back home to meet up with Bryan. We went back to town to let him pick out one of his Christmas presents that I couldn't buy without him.

Today, I have wrapped and wrapped presents. I think just about everything is under the tree that is going to get there. I have one more package to finish up on Christmas Eve. The elf is still working on just one. I've also done laundry and began trying to straighten and clean my house a little. There have been boxes, bags, tissue paper, ribbons, and bows everywhere. Not to mention, we have camo all over our house. Bryan has been duck hunting every day and having the time of his life. There is no need to put any of this away if you're just going to use it again tomorrow. That would be a silly waste of energy. Besides, everything needs to dry out. I also have a boot dryer and other accessories in my laundry room. You have to pick your steps carefully. I'm really not complaining; it's good to have him home for a while and believe me, you can tell he is here.

We are anticipating the arrival of the rest of our family. Micah and Rhyne should be headed to Arkansas tomorrow. We have lots of family plans; dinner Friday night with the Putman's and Christmas Eve brunch for my family and the Putman's.

Tomorrow will be another busy day. Still have more cleaning to do and I need to squeeze in a girl's basketball tournament game at ASU. On Friday the RCS boys play. Then Collin and I have haircuts tomorrow. Sometime, I have cooking to do. It's a wonderful life.

Marcia

Tis The Season

Two weeks have already passed since Thanksgiving and it is hard to believe. Our schedule is simply so hectic that time flies.

After all our children returned to their homes, it became routine as usual. We got things back together on the home front and the laundry caught back up. We went to work and our schedule of activities was set in motion.

We began Monday night by heading out to the Fowler Center for the annual Riceland Banquet. We traveled with our neighbors, the Tidwells, and enjoyed a delicious meal. We were fortunate to win two door prizes. I made off with a flashlight (isn't that exciting) and Collin landed a $20 bill. As we headed out, it began snowing and when dinner was over, it was still snowing. You know this is very unusual before Christmas. It was beautiful. Fortunately, it didn't stick to the roads such that we couldn't get to school and work the next morning.
The weekend arrived and Collin left to deer hunt. Bryan came in for the weekend, but slept in late. As I was basically alone, I decided it was a good time to wrap Christmas packages. It takes quite a while to drag everything out and get organized with boxes here, sacks there, rolls of paper, and all necessary accessories--scissors, tape, bows, ribbons, name tags, and tissue paper. I wrapped all Saturday morning. After assessing my progress, I decided to head to town and do more shopping. I called my mom at the last minute, but she was set on go, so we headed out. Saturday night, I wrapped more. I'll have to get a picture made of the tree and post at a later time.

Sunday was a full day at church. Back to school on Monday and then I decided I needed to make an after school shopping trip. And guess what? Another night of snow!!!! Again, it was absolutely beautiful, but it didn't cling to the roads. By noon, it had just about all melted away. Between the two nights, we had about 9 inches. I can only hope this would happen for Christmas. How wonderful it would be to have a white Christmas, but nothing on the roads.
Wednesday night took us to church for supper and a dress rehearsal for the Living Christmas Tree. All this past weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we have been at the church doing what we could to help in the presentation of "One Incredible Moment." We had three "full house" turnouts. It was a wonderful program. Today, it was back to work. This is the last week of school and we'll be out Friday. It's very exciting around my office. Students and parents have brought in sweet treats throughout the day and this is just Monday. Everyone is excited about the festivities and Christmas break. We've another busy week ahead. More happenings and pictures will come.
Happy Holidays,
Marcia

Its A Boy

I mentioned on the last post that there was more excitement and news to come from Thanksgiving. Micah and Rhyne brought news and announcement gifts that our grand baby is a little boy. Pardon all these strange reflections on the glass frame, but we unwrapped this gift to learn the news.

There were complications in scheduling an ultrasound ( a looooong story that I will not attempt to explain, but the official and second ultrasound was Wednesday and it definitely confirmed that Bennett Roberts Putman will arrive as predicted on April 1st.

Obviously, all of us are very excited about Ben's arrival. We've already started buying a few little things in anticipation of his birthday.

The great-grandparents are also thrilled like the rest of us. There hasn't been a baby in the family now in quite some time. My dad couldn't be happier that he has a second name sake, and I think Uncle Bryan is just a bit please that his little nephew will carry his middle name as well. He has already promised that he'll give drum lessons to Ben.

Looking forward to April

Grammie and Papa

Family Thanksgiving

Our family is richly blessed and it was good to have everyone home for a few days. Micah and Rhyne haven't been home since Christmas and Bryan hasn't really been home from the college campus any to speak of this semester. He came home Thursday night and the other two got home Monday night about 9 o'clock. I had made a crock pot of chili so that we could eat and it would still be hot when the travelers arrived. All of a sudden, the house was once again full of talking, laughter, and activity. When we settled in for bed, I told Collin, "It doesn't get any better than this--everybody is home and it's like old times. I'm happy and blessed."

Although we had quite a bit of together time and celebration time, each had an agenda which provided a week of relaxation, down time, and fun stuff to do. Bryan left Friday morning for Little Rock. One of his closest friends was getting married and he was playing the drums in the wedding reception band. He got in early Sunday morning and had a great time. Monday morning, he was up early and went duck hunting. He had a great time and killed his limit on ducks. This resulted in cleaning them in the afternoon with friends along with some cooking and taste-testing. He went hunting two more times before the week was out.

Micah and I got to do some shopping at the mall and some of our other favorite stores. We were somewhat successful. We just have a good time talking and planning for Christmas. We did make a detour to Chick-Fil-A. If you haven't tried the Peppermint Chocolate Shake you do not know know what you are missing. Be sure to go for the additional whipped topping and cherry. I may want another one before the season ends. We also split a pretzel before leaving the mall. This has become a tradition, but we were still a little full from our shake so one between us was enough. After all, we wanted to save room for turkey.

We celebrate with the traditional dinner with my mom and dad on Wednesday night. Collin smokes the turkey breast and mom does the sides and desserts. Collin know what he is doing on the smoker. That turkey was soooooooo good; very moist, favorable, and tender. Here is the spread below before we grabbed plates and forks.

Thursday morning, Micah and Rhyne packed up to head out to the Putman house. Collin helped me and we put up our Christmas tree and began bringing in all the other boxes to begin putting away fall decorations and getting out all the Christmas stuff. Late in the afternoon, we went out to the Elder's house to celebrate with them. Bryan came along.

Friday morning around 9 o'clock, I went to town to shop for a few Christmas bargains I was interested in. I do NOT need anything so badly that I need to shop in the early hours of the morning. I found what I was looking for, came home, had a snack of lunch, and spent the rest of the day decorating. This was also my Saturday agenda--decorating the house. My house is almost complete ready to celebrate the next holiday.

There were also a few other activities and surprises during the week, but I'm waiting to tell about those on another post. Now it is just about back to routine. Our NO kids left to head home this morning. Bryan is making plans to head back to the campus for about two more weeks, and Collin and I are back to work in the morning. Another wonderful thing about Thanksgiving is that I know in about 3 or 4 weeks, we get to do all this over again. I have lots to do in those weeks. More shopping, parties, and activities.

Tis the season,

Marcia

RCS Homecoming

Although I'm about a week behind and lots of excitement is in the air with the approaching holidays, I wanted to share about Homecoming Week at RCS. This school is a wonderful place and this was a week of fantastic happenings. Every day was a spirit day with a themed dress-up. Even the elementary children took part in the building up to Friday with theme days. As Friday arrived, it was an all-day affair of celebration. The morning started out early at 8 o'clock with dodge ball in the gym. The classes played each other and then the winners took on the faculty. I wasn't party to this activity. I was in the main building taking care of some pressing issues, but sadly, the teachers didn't pull this one out. Maybe next year.I did make it to the talent competition. Every class has an act. In some cases, both the boys and the girls do acts separately. They make up skits or pantomime music. All the skits were really cute and lots of fun. Can you guess this one--the Blues Brothers.

After the skits, each class worked on their spirit banners to hang in the gym and soon it was lunch time. After the judging of the banners it was time for the parade. Each class, 7-12, builds a float on a trailer to be pulled by a truck. This year's theme was Destination Postcard so all of the floats said, "Greetings from . . . " All the floats were really cute. My favorite was the Wizard of Oz. We have a rather large parking lot. The floats go around twice. The Pk3-6 take to the sidewalks to watch the parade and fill their sacks with candy.

After the parade, everyone PK3-12 headed to the gym for the pep rally. After a couple of cheers, the festivities were stopped for a special guest. This is a really long story that I can't tell now, but Lt. Davis arrived from a year-long deployment in Afghanistan and we helped with a surprise reunion with his 3-year old daughter, Ava, who had no idea that her dad had arrived stateside, much less in Jonesboro. I wish my pictures were a little better, but when he walked through the door, she bounded off the bleachers and ran across the floor into his arms with tears in her eyes. I managed in less than an hour to get the newspaper and TV station there. It made both the paper and the evening news.

There wasn't a dry eye in the house. He had surprised his wife that morning.

After the excitement, the pep rally resumed and the games and activities continued.

The ballgames began at 5:30 and between the jr. and sr. high games, the royalty was announced. Unfortunately, the games didn't end in RCS' favor, but the kids had a great day and a great week.

Last week had some excitement as well that I'd like to share, but I'm still in catch up mode. Looking ahead to this very special week, more excitement awaits. Two days of school remain until Thanksgiving and our kiddos are headed home. I'll soon be decorating for Christmas.

Marcia

Veteran's Day Celebration

Thursday was a very special day in the life of RCS. Our social studies teacher organized a Veteran's Day assembly to pay tribute to our local heroes who have served in the military and those who are presently serving. At 9:30, our gym was packed out with students, 1st through 12 grades, as well as military honorees along with their spouses, and other guests in the community. Every grade level was asked to create patriotic banners and to hang them through the gym. This just happened to be one of them that was presented by the first graders. As you can see, there are four alumni actively serving at this time.

As the veterans begin to arrive and American anthems were playing, there was special seating for them on the floor. There were a number of men that had served in WW II some being in their 90s. The youngest were probably late 20s and early 30s. I was extremely pleased that my dad could come and be counted as part of that group. You can see both he and mom about mid-way of this photo. Each one was recognized by the branch of service and then by the war they served in. I thought it was very special.

This gentleman was the guest speaker. He was 93 and had been a POW for three years in the Philippines.

The school choir sang the National Anthem and at the end of the program this student sang a solo, a tribute of thanks to all soldiers.

At the close of the program, the children gave flags to the veterans that they had colored as an appreciation and there was a short reception to honor the vets. Again, I was delighted that my dad could come and share in the celebration of the day.

Marcia

PS. Sorry my pictures are out of order. After thinking I was finished, I found a CD I thought I left at school so I added several good ones at the top.