Day 2311. I'd had a bad night of tooth pain and two kids next to me after going to bed late. I lay back down after everyone had left for school but the pain kept me up. At 11 am I got up as I had a 11:30 am student but he didn't show up. I could have stayed in bed!
At 1 pm Randy left to pick up Tammy and Emmy from school. They'd taken a cookie cutter with them as they were baking cookies at school. After they had cut them out to be put into the oven, they each chose 4 already baked cookies to decorate them, and we parents even got a picture of them! They had lots of fun.
Just before 1:30 pm I left the house to go pick up Sammy. We were back home before it was 2 pm, and a few minutes later Grandma arrived for her Christmas visit. Sammy and I went downstairs to spend time with her. He showed her the Mickey memory game he had received from Santa Claus a week ago and showed us how well he can play it.
It was after 2:30 pm before Randy and the other kids returned home. The kids then all gave their gifts to Grandma. The boys the glasses they had made, while Tammy the little book she had drawn and made. She also read her book to Grandma. Emmy then showed his Santa Claus gift to Grandma - a maze ball that you have to guide a little ball through. Grandma then shared how I had read my first book by Christmas of first grade, and I told her I had that book - "The elephant with pink ears". Grandma then started reading it with Tammy. However, they have only learned 15 letters so far so there are still a lot of letters missing.
At some point I left to get ready for us to leave the house. At 3:50 Grandma left, and I left with Tammy and Emmy to take them to their programming club. We took two subways and did reading practice, then walked to the premises of the club. I left them there and walked to the nearby McDonald's to teach my 4:45 pm lesson as every Monday. When I got there, the little room with a door that was quieter was closed and unaccessible. That was annoying as it was quite noisy and there were lots of people in the rest of McDonald's. I was unsure about what to do but eventually chose a table and sat down. When another better table became available, I moved over there and got my computer and all my stuff out. My lesson started, but for the second time that day no student. Another no-show. Just great. So I did some office work instead. After a few minutes a homeless man came and sat down at the table next to me, turned nearly all the way towards me. He had a bottle of alcohol in his hand that he was drinking and he muttered to himself for most of the time. The people around there all left but I stuck it out to the end.
By 5:45 pm I was back at the club, a little earlier than usual. Ten minutes before the end I went inside to see what they had done. They started learning electric circuits a few weeks ago. That day they had done a Christmas card with a few lights on it that you could light up when you pushed a button. Pretty cool. They were allowed to take those cards home with them. They put their coats back on, and we left the club.
Tammy was still upset with me over something I had said on my way there and wasn't ready to forgive me. She was not talking to me and would not hold my hand. They ate their sandwiches while we walked to the subway. We got on but that day we were not going home. Their breakdance teacher had invited them to a Christmas Party battle, and they wanted to go. As I didn't have any evening student, it was possible. We rode two subways, then had to walk a little. Randy and Sammy were already there, trying to figure out how to get in. Sammy was upset about not succeeding. We met up with them, and together we got in. We were there at 6:30, so an hour after it had started.
We took the elevator up and walked into the room where the party was. It was a rather small room, and kids were dancing. We found a place to sit down, and the kids sat on the floor watching. Their teacher told us that they had just finished the battles for the younger kids. Two kids always dance against each other with one being the winner who then dances against the next kid. Tammy wanted to dance in the battle really bad and was very disappointed that we were too late for that. Emmy didn't really care.
They then started the group of four older kids from 9 to 12. We watched that battle; they were already really good. Sammy was having lots of fun as he liked the music. Emmy was rather tired, and Tammy was very interested. There were three judges, those who wer already successful in breakdance who did the judging.
After the battle was over, they put music on and everyone who wanted to got to dance so Tammy finally got her chance and danced in front of everyone. Emmy would not. Then the winners got prizes and the party was over. There was no food and nothing else. Everyone started leaving, so did we. But Tammy wanted a picture taken with one of the breakdance professionals as other kids had done the same. At 7:30 we left and started walking to the subway.
We had two subways to get home, and Tammy was already very tired. She ended up sleeping on me on the second subway; at that time I didn't know yet that she was getting sick. By 8:30 pm we were home, and they went straight to bed. I got myself something to eat and went to work on the computer, and I also had presents to wrap.
Finally - the last day of school! Sammy didn't even want to go but I reminded him that he had a Christmas party with his class today. Tammy was clearly sick; she was hot and not feeling well and looked sick. She and Emmy also had a Christmas celebration scheduled in school today so she decided to go anyway. Brave girl.
After everyone had left for school, I lay back down. At 10 am my alarm went off, and I got up to get ready for my 10:30 am student. I taught for an hour, then quickly made lunch for Randy, and taught again from 12 to 1 pm. Then I made my own food but didn't have enough time to finish eating as I had to pick up Sammy at 1:30 pm. He'd had a nice little celebration in his class. They had received another figurine with songs for their music box.
Back home, I finished eating while Sammy played with the door and was on his tablet. At 2:30 pm Randy and the other kids returned home. Tammy went straight to bed as she had fever and was feeling terrible. Emmy did not want to practice piano (yet). As for me, I had to go downtown to the DHL office to send the devotional for 2026 for the kids in Mali to Paul so he'd have it before the year starts. I though that Emmy would be excited to go with me but he preferred staying home.
And so I left all by myself at 3 pm. I rode the subway to the end, then walked to DHL to send the flashdrive, then took the subway back home. After 90 minutes I was back home. I found Tammy asleep in my bed and went downstairs to do piano practice with Emmy. He was not very motivated so it was quite a struggle to get him to practice and he did less than he should have. Then we all went upstairs as the boys were getting hungry. I made their sandwiches and cut up their fruit while Randy left for a bread pickup. Tammy never ate anything all day today. After they had eaten, it was bathtub time. But first I cut the boys' hair a little as it was already too long again. After the bathtub, they opened their advent calendars, and we sat down to read our two advent calendar books. We were behind as we hadn't had much time to read them this past week. Tammy joined us even though she wasn't feeling well. We did two days in both books, then I prayed for them. But it was not bed-time yet. We still had to decorate the cookies! I gave Tammy some medicine, and by the time we actually got to start decorating the cookies, she was feeling better and was able to be a part. They each chose two colors they wanted for their icing, and in the end we changed it a little more to add another one. I put the icing on the cookies while they put the sprinkles on them. It was a long process and took a long time. They went to bed at 9:30 - so really late for them - while I finished decorating the remaining cookies. I was glad when I was finally done. Now they just had to stay there and dry. I got myself something to eat and was relieved to finally be able to sit down. After having eaten and had a little time to relax, it was time to get back to work. I had to finish wrapping all the presents, then I had to write my report before another long day tomorrow. Now it's after 2 am, and I'm in pain again because of the tooth that got drilled on last Thursday. And I'm taking antibiotics now but it still hurts so bad. It's unfortunate that it's the holidays and my dentist is closed for two weeks.
