Pyramids, Pharaohs and The Bishops: Hello Holidays!

Yesterday was the last day of classes. The Holiday Celebration was well planned and was a success. While the Celebration rang through the hallways and the Atrium, the cleaning staff devoted themselves to their prayers. Last year around this time I wrote about how I was surprised to see Merry Christmas signage throughout the stores and malls. Living in a predominantly Muslim country, it really was the last thing I expected to see. This year, I expected it, but, it still had me thinking about why the Holiday terminology is so heavily debated in North America. It still rattles around in my head from time to time.

Princess had her school performance debut yesterday. She was a part of the JK and SK choir that sang their rendition of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer". The whole group (around 80 kids) climbed onto the stage wearing antler hats with red noses and took their place. The music started and, I have to say, that it was really cute. Not quite as cute as the Nursery Graduation from last year, but, this was pretty close. Princess performed all her actions, on time and sang nice and loud for all to hear. It is amazing that the elementary music teacher was able to coordinate 80 kids, with actions and music. That would be a challenge for me...give me a group of 20 grade 7's any day over that.

It is nice to not have to worry about work for 3 weeks...well, in an official sense I guess. I just found out that I will be teaching an additional math class starting in February. This news was a major curve-ball, but, I will put together some interesting lessons in time for the course to start. I am thankful that they asked before the holiday so that I can prepare to teach Grade 10 math. It beats last year when I found out only days before school started that I would teach Grade 8 and 9 math. I am looking forward to teaching the class...but, I lose a prep to teach it, so hopefully, it will not overwhelm my already really busy schedule.

With a 3 week holiday that has now only just begun, we are greatly anticipating our winter travels. I am dreading knowing that we are going somewhere that is much colder than here. I am already cold with the climate that we are in. We are packing all of our warmest weather gear (that we have) in hopes that it will be enough. A couple weeks ago we went out in search of winter hats and gloves and were successful overall. Here's hoping that it will be enough. Otherwise, we will be making some quick purchases when we first land in Vienna.

Our itinerary has us traveling to Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and all around the Czech Republic. We are really looking forward to it and will keep the blog updated as much as possible during our travels. Until then, enjoy these pictures from the Celebration yesterday.