Elving at School!!

I remember Christmas as a child fondly. Especially in school. It seems as if it's very different today than it was back then. My husband tried to bring in white holiday lights and they were promptly sent home. The reason? A Fire Hazard. I remember my third grade teacher, working with us all to make ornaments...they were snoopy ornaments of clear plastic that we painted and glittered....and we had a tree in the room, granted an artificial one, with real lights! Colored ones! Oh, it was grand. It seemed as if the whole month of December was a holiday month!



Now? Not so much...but I can't seem to let go of that squirreling around, making gifts for moms and dads, hiding them, keeping secrets...you know....the fun of childhood!



My students asked for days about the "fish bowls" on the windowsill...and I was happy to share with them on Monday that we would be making gifts for moms and dads. They didn't have to be Christmas gifts, they could be solstice gifts, New Years gifts, even late Hanukkah gifts...I didn't care what colors they used, I made them all available...containers of blues, some of reds and greens, and others of rainbow colors...tissue papers, cut into tiny squares. They took their time carefully creating mosaics on glass. Today we tied sweet colorful ribbons around our votives and sent them home secretly....hopefully they'll have the same memories I grew up with...