Collin's Gingerbread creation

Collin's class had scheduled last Thursday afternoon to make gingerbread houses, but with the weather being so insane last week, they moved the event up to the morning.  As much as I wanted to, I hadn't planned on going to the school {lots of work to do!}, but at 10:30 I got a call from Collin, who begged me to come to help {how could I resist}.  So, I quickly got ready & when I got there, they were well into the project.  Collin was so excited to see me & I forgot about work responsibilities for a while & dove in!  The whole class had so much fun... it was really great to see all the different ways his friends made their houses as well.  By the time they were done with that, they went for a quick lunch & straight into their Christmas party, which was supposed to be Friday, but they were assuming the weather would cause cancelations {they were right!}.  Again, lots of fun, food & they were very excited to see what their teacher had for them {a new book for each of them & personalized pencils}.  They had not done a secret santa exchange the last few years, instead each class puts together donations for different causes, which is great.  After Collin got dismissed, we ran over to Evan's building to pick him up.  He was wired... showing me all the goodies that he had gotten.  They were so excited to not only get out early that day, but to start their Christmas vacation extra early!  Hooray.  By the way, we got the ice here, but luckily have kept power.  VERRRRY cold here, though & looks as if we'll be getting some yucky weather again tomorrow.