December already!

The holiday season is soon approaching. There are 7 more teaching days before the "Christmas" Break. I understand that the Ontario schools go until the 23rd of December - we finish on the 16th. Not to worry teachers, we return to teaching on the 3rd!

The reason we have so few teaching days left is that we have a half day on Wednesday due to afternoon staff/committee meetings and no classes on Thursday and Friday due to rescheduled in-service days (postponed from November). Next week we have regular classes until Friday at noon - when most teachers catch a ride to the airport to travel home for the holidays. Sounds nice, but it is a busy time for us!

My friend and colleague, Carolyn, and her family moved away yesterday. Her husband was transferred to Paulatuk, about 400 kilometers east of Inuvik. We have had a few get-togethers for her and for another friend whose husband has been transferred to Yellowknife (both men are RCMP officers). I looked up the cost of a flight to visit Carolyn - $850 (roundtrip) for the 1 hour flight. There is also a staff luncheon put on by the Social Committee at my school (1 guess who the Chairperson of that committee is!) with a "Secret Santa" Gift Exchange - good thing the Jewish woman has some holiday spirit or none of this would take place! There is also the December school assembly that is put on by the Grade 6 students this month and the "Christmas Concert" on the evening of the 15th. I took on the December Assembly so I could introduce students to the variety of holidays celebrated across the cultures during the month of December.






Tom also has a staff dinner and I was invited to a party at the home of parent of a student in my class. What a busy time of the year!

As for the weather today and status of the sunrise/sunset:

Temperature: -31 degrees
Sunrise: 1:11
Sunset: 2:20 - no, really!

As I am writing this, Tom and I have the TV on. We don't have cable and only get 2 channels: CBC North and APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network). We have been watching the news on CBC and just noticed that County Canada is doing a piece on the "most northerly highway" - the Dempster! This is the highway that ends in Inuvik! What beautiful scenery! I am envious that Tom was able to do the drive and see everything that he saw along the way, including moose, Dahl sheep, caribou, Walmart, ptarmigan, etc... I wish we had a blank tape so we could record this!

Well, I should be off now. Tom and I have some grocery shopping to do (by the way, the milk is still $7.99 for 2L) and I have to do some marking and prepping for this week.