Christmas Assemblies

I have found that, of late, I cannot tolerate Santa Claus. Okay... that's a bit harsh. I still like Tim Allen as Santa Clause. And I still like the Grinch as Santa Claus. But overall, I'm quite fed up with the guy.
A thought has been creeping, ever so slowly into my head that perhaps we as Christians are too tolerant of Santa. And today, in a Christmas assembly (in a public school) that featured 'Christmas Carols' about Santa... I had enough. I didn't sing them. I only sang the two songs about Jesus. And that was it. It disgusts me that students know more songs about Santa coming to town, and down through the chimney, and not crying because they won't get presents, than they do about Christ our Saviour.
On the other hand. In a public school... they at least sang Away in a Manger (the first verse) and Silent Night (the first verse). Is that something?

Construction

The following is a very clear example of why we, David and I, should not construct anything....

This is a classic example of Geertsema Construction.... Dave kept wanting to build higher and higher!
Note the fallen tower and the cookie cutter holding the roof up! (I can't say anything because I was apparently helping....)













Final Product. Here we have Frosty being held up by Hershey Kisses.

















Here's Rudolph, he even has a red nose. It looks like there's some kind of elf riding him.....












There's so much icing holding this thing together it's ridiculous!

But we had lots of fun and a huge mess to clean up! That's what Christmas is all about, right?!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

No, I do not mean the snow! We've had that for far too long already! And now it's starting to get REALLY cold too! I'm still not sure how a place can get so much snow and not have had even one snow day! Apparently last year they had 3 before Christmas....well we've got two weeks left and I'll take them anyday!

Anyways, what I meant was: Our house is beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We've got some decorations up, the Christmas music blaring, and I've been watching every Christmas special I can on only our 2 channels! Here's what we've been up to:

Our tree....yes, it's fake!

We got a package from SinterKlaus! (Thanks Mom G!)

Garland around the window in the kitchen.

A nice real wreath for the door. (Thanks Mom V!)

Anyways, two more weeks until the first much needed break! We hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying their preparations for Christmas as much as we are!

Respect

After a recent one and a half week experiment in which I (attempted) to let my beard grow out - "To see if the students give me more respect."
Steph asked (foolishly)... "So if I grow a beard the kids would give me more respect?"
My reply -- "Oh... probably... a woman who grows a beard probably deserves a little respect."

Occupied

Well, here are some of the things that have been occupying our time 'lately'...
1) Snow, Snow and more Snow. I'm glad that I've got this handy-dandy old fashioned and yet still very practical snow shovel. It's great for moving large quantities of snow. Pay close attention to the nice slope on those snow banks (which are on both sides of the driveway...). Those slopes are important for a snow shovel like this one because you need to get the snow shovel to slide up and over the snow bank. Now, what I'm thinking is that if things go well this year, maybe I can get those snow banks high enough so that I can make my own half-pipe out of the driveway? Martin and Michael would probably agree that I need help on my snowboarding skills...


2) Last year, Steph made a big stink about how I was a "Scrooge" at Christmas time - especially when it came to setting up the tree. I didn't think I was a scrooge, necessarily, but I remember not wanting to set up the Christmas tree last year. Well, this year I decided that since I didn't have to go to work (today), I would get a head start and show Steph that I'm looking forward to Christmas. The result of two and a half hours of intense labour is pictured below.


3) Also pictured below is our book shelf. What you see is part of the book collection Steph and I have. These are our adult and children's novels, which have also occupied a lot of our time. Presently Steph is reading "Inkdeath" (the third novel in a children's series of which the first novel has been made into a movie "Inkheart" -- coming soon to a theatre near you...). I just finished "The Diamond of Darkhold" - the fourth book in the City of Ember series (which was also made into a movie recently - which Steph and I saw, and hated)(hopefully Hollywood doesn't wreck Inkheart, too!)

4) Last but not least.... No, don't look at the Maclean's magazine... Look at what's on top of the magazine... Yep, that three/four inch long, piece of metal. Shaped into a crescent. It is about 2 mm's thick. Hard, like steel. It is wide on right side (about 3/4 inch), and thinner on the left side (about 1/2 inch). The side that is thinner is also somewhat shiny. Glossy even. Because that side punctured the front passenger side tire on our Oldsmobile, recently. The result? $600 down the tube just for new tires. (yes, we needed new tires anyways... but still...). This just happened to have happened AFTER I had just been to the car shop to figure out why almost the entire warning instrument panel was lit up like Christmas time on the dashboard. More $ still needs to be spent on that car... Thank-you little piece of metal for making it that much worse.

Again the question needs to be asked....

Where have we moved to???

In about a 15 hour time span we have accumulated A LOT of snow! My parents came down for a visit and shortly after they arrived the snow began. We couldn't believe how it just kept snowing and how quickly it built up! We had to shovel out the driveway for the first time this morning. "Welcome to Barrie" is what a lot of people said to us in church this morning! Here are a few pictures:

Trying to throw a snowball at me....

I'm sure this is what dad planned on doing this weekend!

David built two mini-snowmen on top of our car....they're kinda hard to see with white everywhere...

Mom and Dad and Roz in the snow.

The Season Ending (This was memorable)

Well, I invested a lot of time and effort (and lost wages) into the girls basketball team at Unity. Finally, it all boiled down to one game - a 'championship match' - between our school and the only other team in our two-team league - Heritage. So far, we had not one a single game. So I decided (with only two practices left) to change our offence to 'Overload' - an offence where players set up in the offensive end with more players on one side of the court than the other (the idea being - to overload the opponents' defence by having a lot of players on the same side as the ball.
Game day came around last night and I was nervous. (This being the first basketball team I'd ever coached and they had not won a single game yet).
We started off on a promising note. The other team fouled one of our players and we scored the first basket on a free throw. (1-0 for Unity).
Then it went downhill. After a series of unanswered baskets, Heritage took a handsome lead and the score soon became 15-1 for Heritage. Ouch. ANY time that you are down by 14 points in a junior girls basketball game -- you've pretty much written off the game. That's a fact.
Being the coach. I felt clueless. I'd thrown my players everything I could think of. All my advice, all my instructions, all my encouragement. Nothing seemed to be working.
But I said we'd stick with our offence and we'd just play harder defence.
Very slowly, things started to turn around. But it was already the second half, and when you're down by double-digits, its a long climb back up.
But things did turn around and we had scored a three pointer (miraculously). And then we scored from the top of the key. And suddenly we had 6 points. And then we got a rebound and put that in. (8 points now!).
Something happened. And I don't know what it was. And it happened incredibly slowly. But by the time the fourth quarter came around, the score was somewhere around 22-18 and my girls were in it to win it.
We had momentum and the other team was panicking. Accidentally, to start the fourth quarter, I had sent all three of my post players were on the court (a miscommunication), and I had only two guards (Normally you have three guards and two post players...). I wasn't paying enough attention to who I had sent onto the court.
Fortunately, we scored another basket and Heritage started panicking. Their girls started playing as individuals and my team had finally connected as a team (FINALLY!). Heritage called a time out. The ref told me I still had all five of my time-outs remaining (that I even had five timeouts was something I had completely overlooked).
I left all my post players on the court and told them to simply set up a triangle under the nets on either end and just... get... the... rebound! I told my guards to "just keep passing the ball to the post players, and don't forget to drive to the net yourself on occasion."
Then one of my post players made her fourth foul (any more and she'd be out of the game!). I let her stay in.
There were only a few minutes left in the game (about two minutes actually). We were still down by a basket. Somewhere in there I had called my first timeout to tell my girls, actually I don't remember what I told them, but it was probably good. That's just the kindof coach I am - naturally always saying the right thing, except when its wrong. In this case it was probably right.
The girls went back out onto the court (under two minutes were left).
Somehow we scored a basket.
There were 30 seconds left. The score was tied at 25-25. My girls were going nuts on the bench. I was trying to figure out what happens in the event of a tie game in a championship match?
The problem was that after we scored a basket, Heritage had possession of the ball.
Heritage started up the court with the ball. My girls were setting up on defence.
Then it was something straight out of a movie -- the kind where one of my guards stole the ball in our own end. There were ten seconds left. She started sprint-dribbling down the court. Two Heritage girls were trying to keep up. My guard kept sprinting -- kept dribbling. People were counting down the clock -- 6--- 5 --- 4.
My guard tried to make a lay-up. The ball bounced around.... (Yes, just like it does in the movies...)
Time itself had come to a halt.
The ball fell through the hoop!
My bench went crazy! (like only girls can...) My assistant coach (Ms. Bootsma) was crying. I was (a little) choked up.
I think there was still 3 seconds left on the clock, but I don't think the ref bothered anymore because my bench had completely emptied onto the court.
My girls had finally won a game! And it just happened to be the 'championship' title match of the season!
Unity gets to put their name on the plaque for the second season in a row.
And I've learned a TON about coaching basketball. I hope I get to do it again next year!