Ave Maria (Latin for “Hail Mary”)is a beautiful song about Jesus’ mother, Mary. It is Grandma’s favorite church song. It is slow and can sound kind of sad if you hear just the music. The words are enchanting. It is usually sung in Latin – whether the church singing it is Catholic or not. Here…
The last week of school before Christmas Break, our school hosts a Pajama Day. Its fun watching all the kids dressed up in their PJ’s. I let my kids bring in their blankets and stuffed animals too. Folks from the military visit and volunteer to read the children picture books and answer questions. Today, we…
I’m pretty sure I showed you that we did this last year. But I don’t think I showed you HOW we did it. Since Bea loves to learn to do things and Purity loves art, I thought I’d show you how to make a holiday stained glass window ornament. My students are making candles, pointsettias,…
The kids in my class have been working on coloring a Santa. We colored his body yesterday. We colored his arms today. Tomorrow we will color his legs. As we do this, the kids are reviewing math concepts: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. Anyway, the kids are enjoying it. Plus we are singing Christmas carols in…
Having a song with color kinda means that it has lots of levels: it can make you sad one minute and happy the next. What do you think? My first thought was Cyndi Lauper’s classic song, “True Colors.” Give it a listen…
I’m sitting here finishing off my holiday cards. I usually make two sets: one for Chanukah and all my Jewish friends and one for everyone else. I like writing cards. Kinda feels like the olden days when people didn’t have cell phones or computers. It makes people feel special to get letters and cards in…
After we finished our Christmas shopping, I took Grandma for brunch at the country club. They had all kinds of yummy food: French toast, made to order omelettes, cheesecake, sausages… Apparently Grandma loves sausage. She even talked to Santa for a few minutes and he gave her a candy cane. After I dropped her off…
I took Grandma out shopping for Christmas presents today. She gets tired very easily these days. She hadn’t had a chance to get anything yet and the stores were pretty picked over. Grandma said it “felt strange not buying you kids presents.” I bet it’s strange not getting them from us either. We both miss…
The Hamsa is a symbol of protection in Judaism. It is supposed to protect the wearer from someone who is looking to hurt them somehow. The party I went to today had a henna artist and she drew a Hamsa on one of my hands. It’s not a permanent tattoo. It’s made from plants so…
Another Bat Mitzvah today. HUGE party! So many people. Country Club food and a ginormous dance floor. We just had to dance. I got out there a few times. I still need to learn this dance. Do you know it? Would you teach me?