Time has flown once again. November was busy with a trip to Texas for me (Jessica and I met at the National Council for Teachers of English conference in San Antonio) and hosting Thanksgiving at our house. Doug's parents came down and we also had my friend Alex, her two little girls and her mom and sister here from England. It was the first time I really put the new kitchen to the test. There were some moments I was worried about whether or not I could really pull it off (I was in Texas the weekend before Thanksgiving) but at the end of the day I felt like Clark and said "I did it." There was also another Clark moment when we were getting ready to pray before the meal and were deciding who would do it. Meghan (Alex's seven year old) volunteered that she could lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Doug was the only one who got it. I really missed you guys.

For Christmas I was supposed to be hosting my family here this year in our new house, but it looks like the only one coming is Amy. We're still excited about that though. We just got our tree and Alex's little girls are coming over this afternoon to help us decorate it and make Christmas cookies. We haven't watched any Christmas movies yet, maybe once we do it will feel more like Christmas.

House updates: the addition now has drywall and feels like a part of the house. We were hoping we'd be in it by Christmas, but like all the other deadlines we set for ourselves, it doesn't look like that will happen. It will be close though. We should be painting next week. In a way, it's been good to have a break between choosing all the paint, flooring, fixtures etc in this part of the house and the addition. It starts out being fun and then just gets overwhelming. I started out having such specific ideas for things like the light fixtures and by the end I just wanted light and didn't care so much about how it fit into the time period of the house or any other thing I had fixated on.

Charter school updates: We've started hosting family meetings and taking applications so it really feels real now. Weekly meetings and presentations and interviews and board meetings etc are a lot to do on top of teaching all day and working on house stuff, but it's exciting. The stressful part is that we still don't have a building. We're in negotiations for a place, but don't know for sure if it will go through. I think I'll sleep a little better at night once that's figured out.

I'm still available the weekend of MLK day to do our post-Christmas party if all of you are. Doug and I are hoping to come up after Christmas to see Rachel, but Doug doesn't have the time off yet so we don't have solid plans. Do we ever have solid plans?

I better run. I can't find any of my cookie cutters. I know they're in a box somewhere. Love to you all!