What's on your mind

Vacation is just about over and here I am doing school work. Well I am supposed to be doing school work but I am blogging instead. I brought home so much work thinking that I would get caught up,  but that didn't happen because I was too busy having fun with family and friends. I hope all my teacher friends did the same as I did and didn't spend a lot of time on school work. Happy New Year Everyone!

Yesterday I finally watched my favorite Christmas movie "Miracle on 34th Street" the original from 1947. I only have a few more specials to watch before I have seen them all. If you are looking for Christmas shows to watch here are some highlights from the coming week. Today Friday the 14th  The Polar Express on AMC at 7pm The Santa Clause on Freeform at 7:20pm It's a wonderful life on USA at 8pm I Love Lucy Christmas Special on CBS at 8pm 87th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade on NBC at 9pm The Santa Clause 2 on AMC at 9pm The Santa Clause 3 on Freeform at 9:20pm Saturday December 15th  Mickey's Christmas Carol on Freeform at 7:00 am Miracle on 34th Street on AMC at 9:15 am Prancer on AMC at 11:30 am National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on AMC at 8:30 pm Dr Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas ( movie with Jim Carey) on Freeform at 9:15 pm Sunday December 16th Santa Claus is comin to town on Freeform at 11:00 am National Lampoon's ...

I believe this year I will be finding most of my favorite Christmas specials on AMC. Freeform is not playing as many as past years. Here are some highlights for this week Sunday December 2, 2018 Mickey's once upon a Christmas at 1:05 on Freeform ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas at 3:00 pm on AMC National Lampoons Christmas vacation at 6 pm & again at 8:15 on AMC Monday December 3, 2018 Decorating Disney at 11:00 am on Freeform Jingle all the way at 6 pm on AMC The Santa Clause at 7:25 on Freeform The Santa Clause 2 at 8 pm on AMC Pop up Santa Holiay Special at 9:30 on Freeform Tuesday December 4, 2018 Nestor the long eared Christmas donley at 12:45 pm on AMC Rudolph's shiny new year at 3:30 pm on AMC The Year without a Santa Clause at 4:45 pm on AMC The Polar Express at 8:00 pm on AMC Saturday Night Live the best of Christmas at 9:00 pm on NBC Wednesday December 5, 2018 Santa Claus is coming to Town at 4:00 pm on Freeform Nightmare before Christma...

I love my house when it is all decorated for the holiday. Part of me wants to leave the decorations up year round, but I won't because then they wouldn't be so special at this time of the year. I have a very unique tree at my house. We have an upside down tree. This tree allows for plenty of room to put many presents under tree. And then I have my two favorites together. Disney and Christmas. I have just started collecting Disney pieces. These are all the decorations I have in one room. I will have to work on another room one day this week. 

Thanksgiving is over so now I can spend 100% of my time concentrating on Christmas. Tonight is the kickoff to all the holiday specials. Thank goodness we have a DVR because there are 3 specials on at the same time tonight. at 8:00 CBS has Frosty the snowman, ABC has Santa Claus is coming to town, and NBC is showing How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I love all 3 of them so I watch one and DVR the other two. At 9:00 the CW is airing "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" thats another good one. If you haven't seen it before all you need to know is that the show is based on the song with the same name. Other specials coming up in the near future are: Saturday the 24th   Robbie the Reindeer is on CBS at 8pm  A Christmas Story on TNT at 8pm and again at 10pm Monday November 26th The Great Christmas light fight an ABC at 8pm The nightmare before Christmas on Freeform at 7:15pm Elf on AMC at 9pm Tuesday November 27th  Faneuil Hall tree lighting on CBS channel 4 at 7:30...

With all the rainy weather we have been getting I have had to stay inside so of course while inside I started watching the Christmas movies on Hallmark channel. If you are in the mood for Christmas you can find movies on both of the hallmark channels. If you are in the mood for other specials you don't have to wait much longer. November 21st you can watch "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on ABC at 8pm November 23rd you can watch "Frosty the Snowman" on CBS at 8pm and then Frosty returns is on at 8:30 November 24th "Robbie the reindeer" is on CBS at 8pm and the story of Santa Claus is on at 9pm Then you have all the holiday specials that the channel freeform plays My favorite cartoons are Santa Claus is coming to town, the grinch that stole christmas, and the year without a santa claus Stay tuned for more scheduling updates

Hallmark and Freeform have started showing Christmas movies. I started to watch one today but decided it is just too early for Christmas. So I decided to bring out the Thanksgiving decorations and put those out around the house. Wonder if anyone else feels the same or if everyone is getting ready for Christmas even though the holiday is still 52 days away.

From now until the end of the year I will be enjoying many holiday television specials. Tonight ABC has charlie brown Halloween with "Its the great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" Tomorrow (Friday) AMC is having an all day marathon of the Halloween movies with Jamie Lee Curtis then Saturday AMC is having an all day marathon of Stephen King movies. Here are a few more holiday highlights for this month. Saturday 8:00pm – Michael Jackson’s Halloween (CBS)   8:15pm – Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Halloween Bash (Freeform) 10:15pm – Hocus Pocus (1993, Bette Midler) (Freeform) Sunday 7:00pm – The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) (Disney) 7:40pm – Hocus Pocus (1993, Bette Midler) (Freeform) Friday October 26th 7:50pm – Hocus Pocus (1993, Bette Midler) (Freeform) 8:00pm – It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) (& You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown) (ABC) this is the same night that Hallmark channel starts showing their Christmas movies Holiday season makes ...

I can't believe how fast the first month of school went by. So many changes at school this year but the hardest one to get used to is the change in the class schedule. Instead of 90  minute classes we now have 60 minute classes and they go by so fast. This is going to take some time to get used to.  but I do like the 60 minutes because classes meet more often than the every other day we had last year. The other adjustment I have to make this year is teaching an additional class while being department head. I have been putting in 10 hour days to get all my work done. Hopefully by the end of October I will be able to get everything done in 8-9 hour days so I can go enjoy some Norton sports games. when soccer games start at 3:30 I still have so much work to do I haven't gotten out of my office. I will soon, I promise.

I was just watching NESN clubhouse and I think I have an idea for a field trip. The show did a segment about the perfect hit has the ball leave the bat at 30 - 45 degree angle with the ground and there was some discussion about hit velocity. At some point during the year the advanced math class will do a unit on math in sports. when working on that unit we should go to UMass Lowell and visit the Baseball Research Center. I will contact the center and see about field trips.

Ever hear of the website onlyinyourstate.com? I enjoy reading this website as it gives me ideas of places to visit in New England. One of the road trips the website has for Massachusetts is the "quirky road trip" Last Saturday I headed out on this trip which started in Sudbury and ended in Rockport. In Sudbury we went to the Wayside Inn to see some sites in their historic walking tour. We toured a working grist mill and then went to the Little red School house. Next we went looking for something referred to as "Ponyhedge" This is where you will find rocking horses all arranged in a circle in the middle of a field that is visible from the road. Rememberf this trip is called a quirky road trip. I continued on the road and headed to Rockport to visit the paperhouse. This is a house made of paper.  If you look closely at the walls you can see the writing on the newspapers that were used. Inside of this house the furniture was also made from ...

Plymouth is a close by town to visit for a day. There are beautiful water views from all the docks and you can walk out on a rather long jetty. On one side of the road you have the water and on the other side of the road are the shops and restaurants and there is plenty of public parking. I love water views so this is the perfect place for me. Plymouth is also home to the lobster crawl. There are ceramic lobsters scattered along the waterfront and a few are in the center of town. I had fun looking for all the lobsters. #plymouthlobstercrawl While walking around town I also found a few memorials. Very nice touch! I recommend that you walk around Plymouth waterfront when you have a free day. You can also see the "big" rock

If you get the chance to go to Yarmouth during the summer I highly recommend that you go in search of the sand sculptures. This year there are 33 works of art at various businesses throughout the town. You can go to the web site https://www.yarmouthcapecod.com/sand-sculpture-trail-2018/ to find a map showing where all the sand sculptures are located. The majority of them can be found along route 28. This was my 3rd year going in search of the sand sculptures and I actually went twice, Last weekend I went with my daughter. She took photos of all 33 that she is entering into a photo contest. Yarmouth summer celebration also as a facebook page where they are posting pictures that have been entered into the contest. Go on facebook and vote for your favorite picture. Here are  3 of my favorites from this year. Every year Dunkin Donuts salutes the troops with their sand sculpture

If you enjoy views of the ocean I suggest that you take a ride up the NH coast into Maine. I took this ride in late June. My first stop was in Hampton Beach. I enjoyed exploring all the small shops and I got a sweet snack in one of the candy stores. Then I continued on to Portsmouth, NH. I drove along the coast and stopped several times to take in the view. In Portsmouth you have so many choices for restaurants on the water and this town has plenty of shopping all in one area. Park in the town lot and then walk to all the shops. I left  Portsmouth and headed to York, Maine. I went to visit the Nubble lighthouse which was under construction at the time. Then I went to downtown York and yes again I did a little shopping. Had to get some fudge from Nana's fudge shop. Had a wonderful day! On the way to York I passed through Kittery, Maine and saw all the outlet stores, I am sure I will be back to do some shopping there.

Summer is a time for all teachers and students to recharge. I love this time to relax, catch up with friends, and read the books I don't have time for during the school year. I love doing all of these activities but my favorite part of the summer is taking day trips. I plan to write about those trips and post pictures here on my blog.    One place that I visit more often than all others is the cape cod canal. I can spend hours there reading my book and watching the boats pass by. I try to spend one day per week there. I love when the large ships come through. This is a picture of a car carrier passing under the railroad bridge. Just fits! Last year I got to see a couple of cruise ships go through the canal. I am hoping to see one of those again this year.