winter in Canada

I'm back home in Canada for winter vacation.The last time I was home for Christmas was in 2005!!!! Too long.I love snow. Everything looks so beautiful when covered in snow and frost. [Hercules]Christmas day we took the dogs for a walk down the road.[Lily][Ivy][There are 4 dogs in this pic (the 5th, the little one, was left at home). I love that one is jumping over another. Good timing?]
It was a nice clear day, about -15 Celsius. Not bad.[Moi!! :) in my new jacket]I love snow.... except when I have to drive in/on it. NOT fun.

12 Days of Christmas

A warm up to Christmas.
This is Jinny. She is in my 5 yr old after school class (meaning she is 4 years old western age). Her regular class is doing this song for their Christmas concert and she loves it. She often starts singing it at random times during the class. She is one of the sweetest and cutest kids ever, really!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I've been keeping myself quite busy, sort of.
There's work, of course. Then there are a couple of after work gigs. Add onto that an attempt to go to hot yoga, doctor appointments, dinners with friends and/or the boyfriend, weekend trips and evenings out, and I am BUSY!!! When I am home, I don't feel like doing anything. At home I've been downloading music (had to find some for work) and looking for Christmas movies to download - after the Christmas concert I'll bring my computer to work and my class will watch Christmas movies for the rest of the day (and maybe the following day as well!!).
Work is nuts these days, in preparation for the Christmas concert. Unlike last year's concert, which was only a month after I started, this one is a lot of work. Last year, they had already started teaching the songs and one of the songs the kids already knew because it was used in the Parent's Night show. Also, the concert was just upstairs in the gym, only 3 classes in a concert. This year, we can't use our Parent's Night song, because the moms all saw it. And the concert is in some hall or place with a stage, half of the school in concert at a time. My class is second last the second day, with 4 classes up before us. We were told we had to have them doing 3 songs (choreographed) and a poem. Well, I didn't like any of the poems and decided my kids would do a 4th song instead. I'm glad the school agreed. They thought it was a great idea as all of the other classes were doing poems, which can end up being a tad boring.
So, my kids are singing : I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas, Little Saint Nick by The Beach Boys, All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey, and Happy Christmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon. Many of the kids already know the words to all of them (or most of them) and most of the dances as well (which I made up with a little help from my co-teacher). Our assistant teacher is now making the costumes that we decided on - a vest (red for boys, green for girls) with a reindeer face on the front and their names along the bottom. Very cute.
We had our first demo today with the supervisor watching. She was impressed with how much our kids knew. I think some of the other classes changed their songs or are just starting some of them. Our kids just have to practice. And we have to start practicing with the bells for All I Want for Christmas is You and glow sticks (glowing hearts and star wands) for Happy Christmas.
We have 2 weeks left before the concert. We'll be ready.
I'll post some videos of the kids practicing sometime in the next couple of weeks. They are so good!!!

Chris's Christmas Party 2007

On the 15th I went to the eagerly anticipated party hosted by Chris. Last year's Halloween and Christmas parties, and this year's Halloween party were so great that it was hard to imagine he could make it any better. He never disappoints! Always the host with the most.His entire home was wrapped up Christmas style. Several activities were planned.First up was the tree trimming. Of course, most of the decorations were made by Chris - pictures of himself and friends.And of course, the star has to top the tree!Then there was a bit of a game of paper bag pinatas, using a small wooden sword that Chris had on display in his room. The game evolved a few times:soft ball styleT-ball styleA little later, once the mess of shattered candy was cleaned up, we played a game of pin-the-candycane-on-the-elf. Since the blindfold was no-where to be found, we had to settle for just closing our eyes. It worked well anyway.Then came the Christmas Story and carols. Every Christmas, Chris writes a story and carols for his friends.What is a Christmas party without a visit from Santa?Or a customary photo with the Man in Red.Everyone participated in the White Elephant gift exchange. There was a wide range of gifts from just plain useful to the useless, the funny to the questionable, etc.gameswinter hatsSPAM, toilet paperAnother thing that Chris always plans is a variety of contests such as naming a character or coming up with a caption for a picture. I won one of the caption contests, but won't tell you what it was.

Apocalypse KOW Christmas Concert 2007

Unfortunately I missed out on the concert as I was obviously not in the country. Their concerts are always great fun, though.

[My bro's the one in the middle.]

Christmas Day

Christmas Day, Jason and I went to the Wolfhound, an Irish Pub (THE Irish Pub) in Itaewon. Irish Tom had organized the outing and had made reservations.

[this photo by Janine]

It was a buffet style Christmas dinner with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, beans, veggies, buns, shellfish (yuck), and raw fish (also yuck), among other things. There was a group of 12 of us there. Kieran and Dairin et al went to the Hilton Hotel for their Christmas dinner. It was twice the price and they got only a small bit of turkey. Anyway... The dinner started around 4:30 or so and ended fairly early (7ish). The group slowly shrank as everyone went their own way for the rest of the evening (some home, some elsewhere). Jason and I stayed for more drinks. A few of the people we met the previous night at Kieran and Dairin's were there, as well (all Irish, I think).

some of the groupKing Yiannis Tom and DavidKing JasonKing Richard's Christmas cigarmost of the group [this photo by Janine]

Christmas Eve cont'd

Update: Jason D missed his flight but was able to catch a later one.

He spilled his drink on himself and came up with a very interesting excuse for the look. The sound doesn't exactly match the video so you really have to listen to hear what he is saying...
but once you hear it... lol... :P

Bunnies Can't Stand Christmas :D

I saw this on Tom's blog and decided to share it with you. :P

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve I took Jason up to Ilsan to a party at Kieran and Dairin's (an Irish couple that I've known since 2003, when I worked in Hwajeong, just north-west of Seoul). It was a great evening. That group is always fun and interesting to be around. There is never a dull moment.SOME of the alcohol that was there (taken from across the room with my handy camera... this is only at 7 times zoom :P). I'm not even sure if this bunch was touched much, as everyone brought a lot more. A lot of people were just drinking beer.In the kitchen.Lovebirds on the living room floor.In the living room... a little later.Jason, me, Dairin, Cookie Monster, Kieran (Cookie Monster goes everywhere!!! He was even there when we went to Beijing the other year. :P Dairin loves Cookie.)Raphael (Australian, friend/co-worker from my last job in Korea), and I. I went to Raph's wedding here in 2004 (to Ja-young/Miss Moon (Korean)).Jason entertaining the Irish.Jason D. I wonder if he made his flight!! He was supposed to be on a flight home at 9 in the morning. I think he left the party (stumbled out the door) at around 3 am or so.

Happy Holidays!!!

Merry Christmas!!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
to those that don't celebrate Christmas... Happy Holidays.

More from Chris' Christmas Party..

Here are SOME of the videos from Chris' party.
Stacey's song:
Dave and Kath's song:
Chris' ode to everyone:
a visit from Santa:
a visit from Santa cont'd:

To see the rest of them, check out my other videos on YouTube, under my id: silveroses69. There are also a few videos there of some of my classes at the kindy.
I didn't get a video of all of Chris' songs. To see more, if you want, check out Jared's videos from the evening on YouTube id: kiwiot. Or do a search for "Chris's Xmas Carols" in YouTube.

Christmas Party

Last night was Chris' Christmas party. (He's the one that had the Halloween party I went to, for those of you that are following along.) When ever he has a party, he goes all out. I'm not sure how much he actually spends (time and money) on his parties. He baked cookies, decorated his apartment, wrote versions of the traditional Christmas songs for his close friends, organized games and activities, made a slide show of pictures of all of his friends and put it on cds for everyone (which a very short Santa handed out) and had tons of food and snacks around. One of the games that I unfortunately missed was pin the candycane on the elf... I think he was the elf.

a friendly game of twisterpictures with Santa (Kat and I)the crowdthe host: ChrisStacey and I

A few of us ended up crashing at Chris' as IT WAS SNOWING so the taxis didn't want to go any distances so we were kinda stuck. Us girls took over Chris' bed and left the guys to sleep on the floor down below (it is a loft).