Friday, December 16th.

One more hour and a half to go and school is done for this year! We've had some good times this past week, with the Christmas concert on Wednesday and the holiday carnival yesterday, Thursday. Students have begun to seem they enjoy coming to school, and have been asking about things to do in the new semester.

The concert was quite the organizational event, grades 9 and 10 put up the stage and chairs for the audience, as well as ushering the parents. The rest of the grades all had a song or poem prepared, and it was a really big deal for them considering that their cultural background has not prepared them for public speaking. You can see the syllabics saying "Merry Christmas" on the wall below the English version.

The best day was our snow sculpting carnival, where we invited the parents to come and work with their children and gave cash prizes. First place got $150, second got $75 and third $25. As you can imagine it got quite competitive! Here are pictures of the first prize and their creation, a polar bear with claws and all. Everyone had a great time, and produced some fantastic creations: Sponge Bob, CN tower, twin towers, a ski-doo, igloos, snow-men and a giant turtle. The cold was fought off with snow pants, a fire, hot chocolate and pancakes. I think the event went so well that it will become an annual one.

Tomorrow, Saturday Ricardo, Moopy and I fly out to Thunder Bay. After an overnight we continue to Toronto for our family holidays. We will all be converging in St. Catharines, where we'll be able to spend some family time in between packing and unpacking. We have to close Inge's apartment, as he will be going to a nursing home when he leaves the hospital. He is now walking and eating, so continues to improve....