Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or whatever you celebrate.  My wish for you this year is health, happiness and love wherever you might be celebrating.  I was able to celebrate with my parents and we'll be able to celebrate next week with my brother and his family who will be visiting us here in Phoenix.  I'm grateful to be able to have two weeks to spend relaxing and recharging for the rest of the year. 

Happy Holidays!!

New Year's Resolutions!

It's hard to believe that 2013 is coming to a close.  It's been a busy, but uneventful year for me.   It's time to reflect and make goals for the coming year.  One of my major resolutions was getting healthier-working out more and eating better.  I haven't been too great at that.  Unfortunately,  it's really hard to get in shape when I'm busy with work and stressed out.  I do great on vacations and free time, but not so great during the nitty gritty stressful days of school.  That's one thing I really want to work on this coming year.  Keep a consistent schedule of exercise, stock my pantry with healthier foods and take better care of myself.  So I'm linking up with A Peach for the Teach for her resolution linky party.

Personal-I really want to achieve more balance in my life and spend more time with friends and family doing fun stuff-dancing, hiking and yoga, dinners and cultural activities.

Professional-I also have a constant quest to become more organized, and work on strategies for working smarter, not harder.

Classroom-I really want to explore more ways of incorporating technology in my classroom.  I want to look into some grants or donors choose.  It would be so great for my students.

Blog/TPT-I want and need to get back to blogging on a regular basis.  It's been a stressful year, and I've been sick off and on this fall and it's been hard to blog on a regular basis.  I also want to work on creating products, I just don't even now where to begin.

Just for fun-I want to get back into swing dancing, yoga and hiking.  I also want to spend more time enjoying music, art work and fun stuff with friends.

Here are my resolutions.

 What are your resolutions?  Come link up with A Peach for the Teach and tell us your resolutions!

13 in 13 linky party

It's hard to believe that 2013 is coming to a close.  I did this last year as a way to celebrate the end of 2012.  I found this fun end of the year linky party again that's been put on by  Kristin, Hadar and  Traci.

 

My new Old Navy boots!  Love them!  They're so comfy and cozy!

For sure my blue jeans, but my favorite piece of clothing now is the brand new boots I bought from Old Navy.  They're super cute, comfy and warm.  It was a Merry Christmas to me present.

 

I loved Oblivion and Life of Pi this year.  Both were so good!

Person of Interest was must see tv for me this year.  So good! 

 I also discovered Parenthood and the Good Wife this year.

Same as last year.  La Grande Orange or The Parlor pizza.  Both places have great pizza, and other good food.

Going to the Brush Bar with friends this year.  I went with friends, drank wine and they talked us through painting a picture and they talked us through painting a new picture.  So much fun!!

Having my place cleaned!  So nice!  I love having someone come in and clean my place without having to do the work.

 

I love doing the Currently posts and learning more about other people.  The other one was the Behavior Plans posts.  I had so many different ideas from different people on the behavior plans they use in their classroom.

 

I stuck with blogging.  I've made it more than a year and I've continued to learn and grow.

 Our cottage out in Minnesota and my happy place.  This was built by my great great grandfather.

 

So many good ones.  There isn't one big one that sticks out in my memory.  There are several little ones; Sunday morning yoga and then meeting my Dad for yoga, swing dancing with friends, road trips to San Clemente and time spent in Minnesota with family and friends.

  My goal for 2014 is to take better care of myself health  wise-working out on a regular basis, eating healthier foods, getting to bed earlier and trying to reduce stress in my life.

Balance is the best word for me this year.  Once school begins taking care of myself disappears.  I need to maintain balance this year between work, family, fun and taking care of myself.

Now it's your turn to tell me about your top 13 of 2013.   

How to link up:

Create a blog post sharing your favorite 13 things in 2013. Add the button to your post and link it to this blog post. Then link up below, making sure to link directly to your post, not just your blog.

Christmas memories!

Christmas vacation is finally here!  So excited for all the festivities and just relaxing and spending time with family.  This has been an especially stressful year so I'm really happy to have some to relax and recharge.  My brother and his family is coming and spending time with us in Phoenix.  So excited!!  They moved away almost 7 years ago, so it'll be great to have them back here in town.
 

Hot Chocolate or Eggnog? 

I love them both, but prefer egg nog during the holidays.  So yummy, creamy and we can only enjoy it once a year.

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them underneath the tree? 

Santa wraps up presents from them.  Of course now with no kids and I've grown older, no more presents from Santa.

Colored lights or white? 

I love white lights.  So much more elegant.

When do you decorate? 

When my Christmas vacation begins.  It's hard to think about Christmas until I'm actually on vacation.

Real or Fake Tree? 

I love real trees, but I don't have the time for them now.

What Tops Your Tree?

A star

Favorite Christmas Memories or Traditions?

Spending Christmas with my parents in Carmel.  They rented there for five years.  I loved celebrating Christmas in California by the ocean.

Do you remember your favorite gift as a child?

Not really, so many good gifts over the years.  My parents had a friend that worked at Mattel and gave us so many great gifts over the years.

Do prefer giving or receiving? 

Giving!   I especially love giving to my nieces and nephew.  So fun!  I need to start doing random acts of kindness!

What is your favorite Christmas song? 

Christmas Canon from Transiberian Orchestra.

Candy Canes. Yuck or Yum? 

I love the taste of them, but they're kind of hard to eat.

Favorite Christmas Movie? 

It's a Wonderful Life

Do you shop online or at stores?
Both!  I love Amazon Prime for my nieces and nephews back home.

Photo Cards, Letter or Store Bought Card? 

Letters and either store bought or photo cards,

Now it's your turn! Link up below at Fabulous in First.

Link up your little seasonal survey questions.

Remembering Sandy Hook

Sending love to Sandy Hook!

Currently enjoying my holiday vacation!

It's been so nice to have a long weekend (five days).  It allowed me the opportunity to relax, recharge and get back to feeling like myself again.  I've been trying to get back to my normal activities that have been neglected this last month or so.  Between being stressed out and feeling under the weather I've let a lot of things fall by the wayside-like swing dancing, yoga, spending time with friends and just enjoying life.  I need to work really hard at maintaining that balance between work and play once I get back to school and into the routine again.

Anyway, were moving into a new month and the end of 2013, and with the new month comes another Currently one of my favorite linky parties.  So I'm joining up with Farley and share what's going on.

 

Listening-I'm watching Damages on Netflix.  I saw the first four episodes this summer and loved it.  So happy to see Season 5 finally.  It was long awaited!

Loving-I'm loving this time of year.  I love the holiday music, time spent with family, my parents return to Phoenix, and lots of holiday foods and drinks-butternut squash soup, gingerbread lattes at Starbucks and of course the weather in Phoenix is so nice to so it's fine to be outdoors.  There's also a lot of time to enjoy it with Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation. 

Thinking-I've been thinking about my plans for the week (almost done) and revamping my behavior plan.  I've been using Class Dojo and sticker charts, but they don't seem to have much of an effect on my toughest students.  I'm looking into other options to add into my repertoire.

Wanting-I really want to get back into my regular routine of blogging on a more regular basis, and learning how to make products (I never seem to have the time or energy or ideas to start doing this) and gaining more followers.

Needing-This year has been pretty stressful, and between that and being under the weather for about a month, a lot of things have fallen by the wayside.   I haven't done a lot of my fun activities like swing dancing, yoga, hiking and spending time with friends.  I need to maintain that balance once school begins again and keep a better balance between work and play.

Favorite tradition-I can't think of any real traditions I have.  The main one is spending Christmas with my parents.  During that time we go to movies, drink egg nog and enjoy our time together.  I also enjoy the holiday treats at Starbucks-gingerbread lattes and cranberry bliss bars.  Yummy!

Anyway, please join up with this fun linky party and let us know what you're doing currently. 

I'd love to hear from you!  Happy holiday and I hope you enjoy this holiday season!!