Christmas Party

We had our Christmas Party today!  This morning I put the kids in big circle to open their gifts.  It was chaotic, but they absolutely loved it!  The best comment "OMG I love all these presents!!!"  Here are some pics of the madness.

We also learned about St. Lucia day in Sweden and my girls made St. Lucia Headwreaths and the boys made Starboy hats.  My kids love a hat and couldn't wait to wear them to lunch today.  Adorable!

This afternoon my wonderful parents came to help me set up for our party.  I decided to have a Gingerbread House decorating party this year.  I have never done it before, but I got a few tips from a pro.  Have you ever made a Gingerbread House?  The one time I did, the roof kept falling off.  I was pregnant with my youngest and wanted to scream obscenities  so in order to prevent that from occurring again in front of 20 sweet kinders, I took someone's advice and hot glued those babies together ahead of time.  GENIUS people!!  Who eats the house anyway? No one!  I neglected to read the directions, so the first house I put together I had to take apart 2 or 3 times, but by the end I was a pro.  We ended up with 4 houses and a train.  I put the students in groups of 4 with at least 1 parent and let them have at it.  Before they came in, we got all of the candies and icing out and put all different kinds out at each table.  The kids had a wonderful time and their houses were super cute :)

When we finished, we had a snack and watched a little Polar Express.  It was 430953405984 degrees at school, so I was busy trying to get cool in the midst of all that.  My students had a great day, but I have to be honest and say that I am thrilled the party and gifts are over.  Tomorrow we are doing rotations.  I will be doing the Polar Express story and the students are going to make a bell necklace.  1 1/2 days left until break, yipee!!