Merry & Bright

Merry Christmas from Mackinac Island.

This picture is from a few days ago.

No snow today, instead it was

foggy, rainy and 34 degrees (about 1 C.)

Camilla

I don't have an Elf on the Shelf in my classroom, instead I have Camilla the Christmas Chicken. My students love her. They even love her awful "dad" jokes.

I love that they make sure to include her in our classroom activities.

She loves bringing the kids new books, curling up by the fire and reading to the class.  This year she brought Cinders, Once There was a Christmas Tree and Sonya's Chickens.

Now that we're heading home for vacation, she is packing up and heading back to the coop. Little do my students know that they'll be able to check in on her using the "coop cam" my husband is setting up in our backyard chicken coop

A Rare Occurance

"Snow Days" never happen on Mackinac Island. OK, almost never happen. But occasionally we do close due to other issues. Today we get the day off due to high winds.  And it isn't just MIPS that's closed; the Public Library is closed, the Service Company has rescheduled trash pick-up, the boats aren't running and the Mackinac Bridge is closed to "high profile" traffic. ("High profile traffic" is defined by the Mackinac Bridge Authority as semi trucks, pick-up trucks with enclosed beds, cars with bike carriers or luggage on the roof, cars pulling boats or trailers [with sides over two feet] and U-Haul type trucks.)

And no wonder it's windy. It's 58 degrees (about 14C) this morning - which is really weird for December in Northern Michigan.  

The only bad thing about today was, I got the text about school being cancelled about 15 minutes after I'd gotten to school. No complaints though, an unexpected day off is always a good thing...

It's Beginning...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

everywhere you go...

Fall

Fall is fading fast on Mackinac. The vast majority of the leaves have fallen, so I was quite surprised to find these maple leaves near the Post Office this week. Of course it got me wondering... Why did those leaves hang on longer? Was there something abut that location that protected them, or do maples in general drop their leaves later? And, why were all the leave so red this year? So of course I had to look it up.

Apparently when you have cold (but not freezing nights) along with bright sunny days it triggers maples to produce more of a red pigment, while rainy gray days are more favorable for a yellow pigment. It makes perfect sense - this has been one of the nicest falls I can remember: warm and sunny with only a handful of frosts. That must be the reason why, this year, Grand Hill looked like this:

Photo courtesy of Grand Hotel

Those leaves are all gone now, but they were stunning. 

Halloween 2021

Here are our family costumes for 2021. These three high schoolers trick-or-treated for the win, bringing home close to 30 pounds of candy (about 13.5 Kg.) Weighing the candy when they get home is a tradition in our house. S was up from 2020's eight pounds with 11 pounds (about 5 kg) this year, while K was up a tad with nine pounds (about 4 kg.) K came home about an hour before S so it makes sense their total was lower. 

My son wanted to be Lady Dimitrescu, a character from one of the Resident Evil video games. (Don't worry - he's not upset; he's trying to look like a cannibalistic murdering aristocrat who may or may not be a vampire.)

While S was going for a very specific look, my youngest decided to create their look using a mask they made in art class paired with a cape I stitched up to go with a lion mask. The cape has since spent a lot of time at school. Apparently bringing blankets to class isn't allowed in the school dress code, but since a cape is technically an article of clothing, it's allowed. K was thrilled to discover this "loophole."

The Big 25

 Last week my husband and I celebrated

our 25th wedding anniversary. 

It's hard to believe it's been that long...

To celebrate, Allen took me out for an exquisite dinner at Chianti. It was, by far, the very best meal I've ever eaten on Mackinac Island; Grand Hotel food doesn't even come close.  So now I'm hopeful Allen decides to make a trip to Chianti a yearly tradition. Luckily they were running a "locals" special so we didn't have to pay the full $125 per person, though it would have been worth it - the food was that good!

New Digs

If you been hanging out here for a while, I'm sure you know we have chickens. You may also know that usually they leave the island for the winter.

But not this year...

This year they'll be staying in their lovely new coop. (Thanks to help from my husband, kids and nephews.)

.

Oh yes, and my mother-in-law. She did an excellent job supervising the tear down of the old coop and the new coop build. As did her dog, Shay.

The coop came as a kit, which made it much easier for us to put together - even if it did take longer than the 30 minutes the company claimed. It was still worth it; no measuring, no cutting and no design work.

So now the girls cozy, warm and dry in their new home, while I get a much nicer view in my backyard. And I get to keep them. Which I am thrilled about today, but we'll see how I feel in February...

 

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to all you Trolls out there. For those of you who may not know, those of us who live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula refer to those who live in the Mitten as "trolls" - because they live below the bridge.

My Troll costume was from 2017, but just enough time had passed where my current students didn't remember me wearing it. Though I must admit Id forgotten just how itchy wigs can be. 

Um...... What?

We arrived at school this morning to discover this. Some asshole (not the word I used at school) decided it would be a good idea to throw a can through one of the windows of our school.

Needless to say, the first and second graders had to spend the morning in the library so the custodian could clean up all that glass and put a board where the window should be. So sad...

Edited to add: The caught him! Our Chief of Police put a photograph of a "person of interest" wanted for vandalism of an island business. The guy turned himself in and apparently admitted to vandalizing the school while he was being questioned about the other business he damaged. I hope he has to pay to replace the custom size window he broke, AND to replace the rugs and pillows that aren't safe to use with kids anymore. I'd also love it if he had to come to the classroom and deliver the replacement items along with an apology to the kids, but I doubt that part will happen.