Christmas is coming...

Only 5 days until Christmas and today my annual package from my parents in London arrived!!

Inside was the gravy I asked for to make the sauce for Christmas dinner and a selection of 3 mini Christmas cakes...with no strawberries in sight ;)

I am getting excited now...

COMING SOON...Top Ten Christmas Tunes!!

Stop to smell the roses

In class last week we had the phrase 'See the bigger picture'. It reminded me of one of my favourite sayings, 'Stop to smell the roses'.

Everyone should take time to 'stop and smell the roses'

Both have a similar meaning. Slow down for a minute, take a look at your life, ignore your problems for a while and see the positive things in your life.
This is something that we all need to do every now and again. Especially at the end of the year.
In Japan there are many "End of year parties" (in Japanese 'forget the year' party) which I always thought was a strange, however forward thinking, idea. Why would anyone want to forget the year that they had just lived?
Every year on New Year's Eve I sit alone for a few minutes and think about everything that had happened that year, and how I will learn from the mistakes I had made, to make the next year a little better, and just to take a minute to 'stop and smell the roses'.

2012 has been a great year for me...here's to 2013!! (if the world doesn't end on December 21st ;)

Santa Claus is coming to town

It is this time of year that I start to feel homesick. Christmas in London holds so many good memories for me that when December the first comes around and Christmas songs start appearing around town the memories come flooding back.
I was feeling especially homesick the other day and decided to take a look on the internet at the most famous Christmas lights in London, in Oxford Street, which are sponsored by Marmite (the smelly brown foodstuff that I love)

 Then I found a link to another set of Christmas lights in Carnaby Street and I love them!!
I know they are not particularly Christmassy but the design and the presentation are wonderful.
I just wish I could go there to see them in person and walk around in the freezing, rainy evening air, eating a bag of roasted chestnuts and feeling that special Christmas feeling.

Oh by the way, as I mentioned Christmas music here is my all time favourite Christmas song...enjoy :)

Great drawing

Yesterday, in an elementary school class I was doing 'He is wearing.../ She is wearing...' and learning some clothing and we were drawing some outfits for a listening/comprehension exercise.

I asked them to draw two pictures...

The first 'He is wearing a big, old, striped T-shirt', the second 'She is wearing a small, new, polka dot T-shirt'.

One of my students in the class, Miss A drew this really nicely...

...and Mr T drew this...

I love his imagination.
He is always sketching before and after class, and he is getting better and better. I can't wait to see what he draws next time!