{"id":9623,"date":"2013-12-21T04:45:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T04:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=9623"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:30","slug":"christmas-break-and-not-a-minute-too-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=9623","title":{"rendered":"CHRISTMAS BREAK – AND NOT A MINUTE TOO SOON!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

School is out for two weeks and Melissa and I welcome the break with open arms!\u00a0 It’s not because we dislike our jobs – we’re loving teaching here – it’s just that we’re so looking forward to having some flexibility in our days, the opportunity to do some new things and a bit less stress.Speaking of stress, Wednesday we topped off our last few days of classes with the traditional Cowman School Christmas Program.\u00a0 A good chunk of MONDAY<\/strong> morning was spent next door, upstairs at Radio 4VEH, where there is a reception hall big enough to accommodate all the students and their family members.\u00a0 This was to be the locale for the program, so it was important to get the kids on stage there and test out the sound system and all.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The program consisted of Christmas carols interspersed with a few short skits illustrating how some of our favorite carols came about in the first place.\u00a0 Caleb (on the right) played the man who wrote O Little Town of Bethlehem and his buddy Jake Bundy played the man who composed the tune.<\/p>\n\n\n

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TUESDAY<\/strong> was our final day of classes and the kids showed up ready to learn!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Here’s a great shot of Melissa, her class, and her aide, Miss Rose.\u00a0 They had a crazy busy day, finishing up crafts, unwrapping gifts and watching The Polar Express.\u00a0 Melissa was excited because we found a woman in the marketplace last weekend selling cute little resin Christmas trains for the equivalent of 50 cents each, so that’s what\u00a0Melissa bought her students.\u00a0 (You never know what you might find in the market!)<\/p>\n\n\n

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After school Tuesday was my final adult English class of the year and I had promised\u00a0my students\u00a0a Christmas party.\u00a0 Melissa and the kids – including the Bundys – had helped decorate them the night before.<\/p>\n\n\n

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My students went to town on those cookies.\u00a0 Even though the general consensus was that sugar cookies with icing are a bit too sweet for Haitian tastebuds, I brought home ONE cookie.\u00a0 One! We had a great time singing some Christmas carols together, too.\u00a0 A lot of fun.<\/p>\n\n\n

WEDNESDAY<\/strong> was the big day – the kids were to start arriving at 1:30 with the Christmas program\u00a0itself scheduled for 2:30.\u00a0 Some of us were tasked with keeping the kids busy outside while final preparations were made inside.\u00a0 It was supposed to be a quiet time of making crafts and playing some lowkey holiday games – parents and children interacting together.\u00a0 Instead, it was largely chaos.\u00a0 Kids were running\u00a0wild in their dressy clothes. Parents sat inside in the air conditioning.\u00a0 And finding the right kids to organize costumes and prep for the program was nearly impossible.\u00a0 But the kids had fun!<\/p>\n\n\n

Everyone was dressed in his or her finest!<\/p>\n\n\n

Including our Hannah – looking very mature for an 11 year old!<\/p>\n\n\n

Melissa and Rose had their hands full in herding their students and making costume changes.\u00a0 But the cuteness factor was worth all the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n

Samuel’s character was the sickly composer of “What Child Is This?”\u00a0 Everyone agreed he does the best fake sneezes. (He told me his secret – as if he’d given it a lot of thought – you have to say A-SHOO instead of A-CHOO<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n

Mary was ready for her big scene…<\/p>\n\n\n

Hannah was narrator for the skit on “O Come, All Ye Faithful”.\u00a0 And she did a lovely job!<\/p>\n\n\n

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When it was all said and done, we enjoyed refreshments together, wished each other Merry Christmas, and then all the teachers and aides and Miss Erica (who directed) and our principal, Angie Bundy, all went home and collapsed.\u00a0 (Just a guess.)THURSDAY AND FRIDAY<\/strong>: Now we’re in full-blown break mode and the kids have already enjoyed a couple of sleepovers and some family movie time.\u00a0 (Tomorrow we are going to the beach – and that means I need to get to sleep soon.\u00a0 One needs to be as alert as possible while driving to the beach!)We are looking forward to what surprises and challenges God has in store for us here during our first Christmas away from family.\u00a0 As always, we would appreciate your prayers … especially for our kids.\u00a0 And we wish you and yours a very merry and meaningful Christmas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School is out for two weeks and Melissa and I welcome the break with open arms!\u00a0 It’s not because we dislike our jobs – we’re loving teaching here – it’s just that we’re so looking forward to having some flexibility in our days, the opportunity to do some new things and a bit less stress.Speaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9648,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9623\/revisions\/9648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}