Snow, snow, lots of snow...

 Sing the following along to the tune of London Bridge:

Snow, snow, lots of snow
Falling on the ground
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
School is closing down!

You can thank our seventh/eighth grade math teacher for that one. When snow was in the forecast, she would always stand up at assemblies and we'd sing it in a round, hoping for snow. She would also make origami snowflakes with the class and hang them from the ceiling, hoping to encourage snowfall. It often did! 

Maybe she's been singing it again in retirement. In Pennsylvania, major snowfall has hit for the first time in a while. It shut down schools and the kids went out to play. Just this afternoon I saw a bunch of kids having a snowball fight on the sidewalk. Of course since it was iced over, they mostly were throwing ice chunks in trapezoids at each other instead.

I miss a good old snow day. They're hard to come by working in health care, but I manage as I can't actually get there some days. As a kid, Mom would always make us chocolate chip pancakes on snow days. She'd wear an old blue sweatshirt with Pooh and Eeyore dressed for winter. Then it was time to go outside or head out to play.

But today I'm talking about the outdoors. It was just fun to stand out in it. Everything was so quiet and different. We enjoyed making snow forts and sometimes throwing snowballs. When I was little I'd play a game where I'd throw a plastic fish into the air blindly and then try to find it, of course being super sad on the occasions where I couldn't find it. Snow angels were attempted, but it was so hard to get up without wrecking them. Another thing I'd do was bring the sled up the ladder of the swing set and then ride it down the slide. One time I actually managed to get some distance!

Speaking of sledding, my best sled memories come from young childhood. Dad would give us a ride to a teeny tiny hill. By that I mean it would take me about five steps to walk down. It was sure fun as a kid though! And it was also nice just to take the sled ride, in the darkness of night when everything was quiet and crystalline. 

Even after the snow day, there was fun to be had. At recess, we were allowed to play in the snow as long as we brought boots, snow pants, a coat, and gloves. Getting these things on in the halls was such a nuisance!  When I decided to brave it, I found it was mostly worth it. 

Fun story time: one of the fields had iced over once, and we used it as a little rink. I can't believe the teachers didn't stop us. It was so much fun; one of those magical kid moments I knew I'd always remember. Once a section of my backyard did the same thing when I had a friend over, and we slid all over the place. Such fun. Nothing beat a nature-made ice rink.

One more memory from school: getting dismissed early. Usually they just cancel ahead of time now, but there were times when the snow got to be too much and they'd send us home early. Nothing beat the anticipation of snow coming down and kids yelling "It's snowing!" and teachers telling us not to get too excited. And when they called your bus over the speaker, you'd drop whatever you were doing and leave. 

So if you're getting snow this week, don't worry about the bread and toilet paper, because chances are you don't need all that. Take it in, enjoy it, and remember what it was like to be a kid again. 

In Memoriam: The vlog....is over: A Goodbye to Adam the Woo

I was getting ready to leave for work on Tuesday morning. Tired from lack of sleep, I opened my phone to browse for a few moments. Atop my Facebook feed, YouTube vlogger Jacob the Carpetbagger dropped the news: fellow vlogger Adam the Woo had shockingly passed away the previous day.

I don't even follow Jacob the Carpetbagger, but there he was, ready to ruin our day. I sat down on the couch, wondering who has was talking about (he mentioned he lost his mentor). Someone in the comments vaguely mentioned a sister, so I thought, maybe that's who it was? 

I looked at the photo that he posted again. The air knocked out of me, I went to YouTube, when it became clear that others were talking too: Adam was gone. I stood, trembling, but unable to sit again, merely pacing about the room. The cliche was true; it felt like a joke or a hoax. I truly thought that someone would jump out any second and say, "April Fools!" There was an error message in my brain: I simply couldn't compute what happened. 

Now I'm not normally one to be really sad at the death of someone super famous, YouTubers especially. So why does this one hit hard?

Well, for starters, it's a shock. He was young and had plans to do a Route 66 adventure in 2026. At the facility where I work people die every year, so it's not always a shock. Sometimes it's even a relief. But Adam was 51 and active. 

For another, he was personable.

I discovered Adam the Woo by accident in 2020. It was another mind-numbing day stuck in the house, in the bedroom of my parents' house. I was trying to fill the void by randomly clicking around YouTube videos as I often did then. I think it was the Carpetbagger who actually made the video about the Museum of Failure that I clicked on. Midway through, once the museum lost my interest, I noticed a travel video about a maze of a house, which was supposed to be super strange.

A bearded, sunglassed man in a Mickey Mouse T-shirt invited me to join him for the day's adventure caffeinated beverage in hand. Above the rearview mirror, a tiny ape aptly named Big the Foot jangled from the rearview mirror, ready for a front-row seat.

I didn't even mind that he took ten minutes to get to the actual house---something which normally would have pissed me off for the false advertising (okay, maybe I was miffed at first)---and rambled about other things and sights along the way, pointing out various points of interest as he'd speak to a friend, something of which I was in short supply of. His commentary captivated me from the get-go. To call him an influencer, peddling products, would be a gross falsehood. (In fact, he was quite the opposite---not wanting to take a cent from followers or even wanting to allow ubiquitous YouTube ads.) He didn't put on a loud personality. He simply took to the streets, seeing what he wanted to see. 

And so I clicked on more of his videos. 

He toured the backroads of America---not just museums but also old post offices, abandoned towns, Coca Cola ads, and Wild West villages. Perhaps because they were both born in Tupelo, he loved Elvis, touring Graceland and his birthplace. He'd also been taking to record shopping, his punk rock history still present. He loved Disney and spent a lot of time in the parks. But even then there was content to enjoy; he was probably the only person on Earth to spend a full day at Splash Mountain on the day it shuttered, recording a genuinely interesting perspective for posterity. For someone who wasn't thrilled at the idea of traveling the country, Adam showed me the world. And the best stuff was often the subtle stuff, far from the main city or theme park.

One of the highlights of my 2025 was the start of Adam's international travel. He started in Belize and later went to London, South Korea, Ecuador, and even Malta. These videos were an EVENT sometimes up to an hour. I would get home from work where I now lived independently, fire up YouTube on TV, and settle in for an evening of travel. 

Adam's travels weren't always tourist sites and other countries. On a given day, he might visit orange-themed gift shops, the first McDonalds, record stores, old jails in Idaho, took a "Hood Life" van tour in Compton, and got chased out of a creepy abandoned Florida hotel. He didn't let 2020 stop him, traveling to find local food joints and reviewing them for us. I also enjoyed his recent trips to go thrift shopping. 

Any Woovian will also be familiar with a few iconic moments. His daring adventure riding a bike down a slide is not to be forgotten. What about the time he stepped in poop at Buc-ees, or moved out of the van? But one of my absolute favorites was the road trip that he took with his father, remembering childhood destinations as Papa Woo pointed out all the decrepit churches where he once preached, as well as Adam's childhood homes. They moved quite a bit in his youth, allowing for diverse content among Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and more. I worked at a spa at the time and I would try to watch as much as I could before clients walked in the door. The videos were long, so I had to start early! 

There was an implicit message, also stated by a few commenters, that it was so important to cherish the time you had with your parents. We knew that Papa Woo was getting older. But nobody could have predicted that Adam would be gone long before his father. 

I think one of the real reasons I appreciate Adam is that he got me back into traveling, too. It recently occurred to me that I had Adam's airport vlogs to thank for that. He'd take us along as he went through security, talk about the process as he was putting his shoes back on ("It's all part of the experience"), find his gate, try to find his plane out the window, browse the kitschy tourist shops, get frustrated over delays, and enjoy an in-flight snack while selecting a movie to watch. Adam made travel look doable and unknowingly served as a guide for those of us who were inexperienced travelers. 

I couldn't imagine getting on another long plane trip; they seemed so unpleasant. I'd watch Adam and be glad I was in my cozy home. But in 2022, hypothetical plans were taking place for a trip I'd like to take. In 2023, I threw myself far outside the confines of my tiny comfort zone and traveled solo for the first time to Texas, farther than I'd ever been. The experience was glorious. I met friendly people, including someone I admired, and shook their hand. I didn't need a plane. I was flying home myself on that last day. 

Like Adam's USA trips, not everything I saw was touristy. Though we did both see Space Center Houston. Adam helped me realize that going there alone could be just as fun. We also shared a second experience in Houston: getting attacked by birds. His was some kind of goose; mine were mallards. Sometimes the best tourism was just taking in the local stuff and experiencing what daily life was like for a Texan.  

It changed my life. Last year I took another solo trip to Colorado, and that was equally wonderful. 

Adam was also getting ready for more trips. To my delight, he said he would focus more on America's backroads again and do less Disney (although if you watched his walk and talk videos long enough, you knew better than to think he'd stick to his plans). A route 66 adventure was in the works. Life and adventure lay ahead, endless videos as far as the eye could see. I sometimes wondered when Adam would quit, eventually retiring and thinking of how sad it would be. The idea seemed unreal. And anyway, that wouldn't happen anytime soon.

On December 22nd, 2025, the Grinch came to steal Christmas from Adam...literally. 

His last edited video is one of an acquaintance dressing up as the Grinch and goofing around in the neighborhood together. He'd just put his Christmas decor out after having made it back from his recent trip, where he finally got to see a long-awaited destination: Disneyland Paris. At the end of his last video, he ran around town with the Grinch embracing his hometown, admired the sunset and said how perfect it was, and ended with his final words to us: "The vlog...is over." 

One can only hope for that kind of last night. 

The video itself is now a comment shrine. But there was so much more to be done and even I'm sad at the 66 trip I won't get to see. He had plans to visit Route 66, go back to Hawaii, and celebrate Christmas 2025. Yet, Adam filmed hundreds upon hundreds of videos before his passing, squeezing in more life than most people would in 100 years. There is still a lot more I haven't seen, and I haven't even touched on his urban exploration channel of yore. Beyond that, there is more traveling for me to be done, I'm sure. But can any of us be sure? Nobody is promised tomorrow. 

So for now, I will live by Adam's rules, ambling along, finding adventure and enjoyment wherever I go and not putting things off. And of course, there's that huge video backlog to watch and more virtual adventure to be had. 

From a stranger to you: thank you, Adam. 

The adventure...will continue. 

If you would like to see for yourself, here are some of my favorite moments:

My first Woo experience: the Strangest House in the World

Riding a rough roller coaster

Looking back on the Bike Incident of 2016 (with footage)

The end of the father/son road trip (look though suggested and they might suggest more of these to you)

Adam films Splash Mountain's last day

The video that inspired me to visit Space Center Houston

Adam and Papa Woo have a catch at the Field of Dreams 

Elvis tour

Exploring the hotel he used to work at

L.A. Hood Life Van Tour

Star Wars Day

School lunches

Author Anne Lamott wrote a book called Bird by Bird which I am reading right now. The subtitle aptly states that it's advice on writing and in life, which it is. One piece of advice she gives is through comparing writing to school lunches. She then goes on to write her own brain-dumpy piece on school lunches to learn more about character.

And then I thought, there's actually a lot of content in school lunches. I'm not talking about nutrition; I'm talking about details.

I went to private school where you couldn't buy traditional lunches. What you could do was opt to order food from a local place. In the early days, Monday was chicken nugget day and Wednesday was mozzarella stick day. Tuesdays were always pizza day. Later, Wednesday would become pasta day. I'm not sure why I participated in pizza and pasta day. They just were not good. The pizza came from Papa Johns and was a thin slice of cardboard that tasted more like overdone crust. A friend of mine showed me how to make it slightly more tolerable by pulling the cheese off.

There was one redeeming factor on pasta day: garlic bread! Not the garlic bread itself, but the tinfoil it was wrapped in. My friend and I kept it in the front pouch of our lunchboxes, seeing how long it would stay in shape and making other shapes out of it too. It wasn't just us. One of the boys made a small canoe out of it, and put two tiny pieces inside, calling them Lewis and Clark. He'd move the boat around until it went upside down, the tiny explorers falling all the way down onto the lunch table and meeting their untimely demise with only an "oh no!" from their creator. 

I was more versed in packed lunches.

The process of preparing lunch was more fun in kindergarten. Mom and I would prepare what I wanted every day of the week, writing it all down on a piece of paper and sticking it to the fridge. Lunch combos were more interesting back then, being chicken patties with ketchup sent in Tupperware, or taco Lunchables.

Things got simpler as time went on. My dad often made us a sandwich or peanut butter between Ritz crackers. One time I opened my baggie to see what looked to be soggy mold between the Ritz crackers. When neither my best friend not I could figure what it was, I threw it in the trash. Turns out it was cream cheese. 

Also, drinks. Hi-C, Juicy Juice, and Capri Sun were the winners (though to be frank, Capri Sun was just okay). My best friend and I would compete, when we were young, to see whose had the fewest grams of sugar, and the Dragon Tales characters on them were also a plus. In fifth grade my friend would bring yummy looking juice drinks called Dazzlers. I thought they were very cool and asked Mom to get me some, too. Well, they were cool...except for the time she found a brown thing floating in the lemonade. (There was another mishap where she spilled grape juice all over herself, requiring a change of clothes. Who knew so much could fit in those little bottles?) 

Another snacktime favorite in third grade was Parmalat chocolate milk. Popular snacks over time included GoGurt tubes, 100 calorie packs, donut holes, and if I was lucky, cookies we baked the previous day.

But also, lunch was a time to catch up. I still remember packing a fortune cookie in my lunch one day. The fortune read, "You and your wife will be very happy together." This drew the attention of some eighth grade girls and one of the teachers, and we all laughed. A friend and I would often share our dreams, though I'd often make mine up. And then it would be time to, alas, pack up and go to class. 

May your lunches be healthful and delicious this coming school year. 

The Last Days of School

My K-8 school had their last day of school last week, as did many other places! I think it was worth being a kid just for those days!

It usually started with Field Day. It was a fun frenzy, whether you were the red team or the blue team. There were T-shirts for sale each year, which were always a fun souvenir. And you'd keep rotating stations all morning. Would the next one be the sack race, the bubble station (no points for your team were earned here, but fun), Noah's Ark (tossing rubber animals into milk crates), or the one where you'd kneel on a scooter using only rubber plungers to propel you forward (much harder than it looked!), or the one where you'd balance a ball on rubber plungers to the finish line and back? Another infamous game had us put on big rubber tubes and chase a ball to the finish line and back in a relay race---but not being able to see your feet made it very tough.

In my first few years we did a whole-school tug of war. (We were a Quaker school; maybe the implication of violence was too much for them, haha). That was fun, but then the dreaded event came: the fifty-yard dash. Each grade raced across the field for bragging rights. I was almost always last. Someone should have told me that it wasn't required. But in grade school, so many people participated that I didn't think otherwise.

When we were in 8th grade, we'd also be paired up with a kindergarten "buddy" helping them through the games. I thought it sounded intimidating, but Hannah liked me just great, just like my own buddy did when I was in kindergarten (who was also named Hannah). 

Finally the winner would be announced, and then we'd head to our classrooms for pizza, chips, and Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies. And the best of all...yearbooks. That was always fun. Then in the afternoon, a juggling troupe would perform. One year it was some lamey folk singers. 

FYI...our yearbooks were pretty crappy. Class individual photos, eights grade profiles they made themselves, lots of pictures of the 6th-8th graders, faculty photos, and group sports pictures with little to no action shots, etc. The bare minimum. But we loved them anyway. In high school, we got better yearbooks. We also had our own field day, called Fox Day, but it wasn't the same. AM was a scavenger hunt; PM was games--you usually only got to play 1 or 2. That was also followed by a company that came in and led a game show. 

Another exciting thing to do was enjoy literary magazines. Often around this time, teachers would compile some of our writing projects from the past year, make them into books, and hand them out. I always loved those, being a writer myself. 

Of course, in middle school there was the graduation dance a few days before. Sometimes the graduating class would attempt making a big circle and swaying to Vitamin C's "Graduation." When we tried it, it dissolved in 30 seconds. Oh well. 

Then, the last day itself! Activities varied over the years. Sometimes we'd clean the classroom and fight over who got to bring the job chart home. One year we had Wendy's for lunch. In 3rd through 5th grade, we got to walk over to the neighboring high school pool and go for a swim. Me being raised by safety-conscious parents, I got so freaked out by a nearby storm that I got out of the pool after ten minutes and refused to go back in, being all "but Ranger Rick magazine says it's bad to swim near a storm!" Le sigh. In the younger years, we'd have a "sing out," where we'd go to the gym and sing a bunch of folk songs from the sixties. That sounds incredibly lame, and it pretty much was. 

And then, you'd look around your classroom, your combination of classmates, and remember all the memories, and realize that this teacher and class would never be yours again. So it was exciting, but also sad. Walking by your old classroom the next year was a punch in the gut. But then soon enough your new class would feel like a new home...and the cycle continued...

Kid Perks!

My family and I enjoyed dinner at Perkins recently and we got to thinking of how many memories our family had there. Isn't it funny: memories at a restaurant?

But let us think back...

My family has always liked Perkins. After one of us had a preschool show or event, the whole family would hop in the car and celebrate with a Perkins lunch. (I still walk past that preschool regularly; although I can't remember any specific days, I always get the feeling that an event just ended and that I should be going out to eat!) We had a round table in the back that became our favorite. 

You had to love the atmosphere. You were greeted with pink, green, white and brown; cases full of baked goods; Give Kids the World advertising; a claw machine; and numbers. Scattered throughout the ceilings were number lines going from 1 to 10 (or 13? 15? 16?). When an order was ready a number would light up, playing a doorbell sound. 

The kids menus were titled Kid Perks and featured a boy in a backwards baseball cap giving a thumbs up. On those were various activities. (Later, they would be activity packets with characters such as Kelly Cookie which my sister with the same name was the butt of many jokes about). I remember my best friend showing off her cursive letters on one of those kids menus once. 

But food choices were always easy. I always got a chocolate milk complete with a plastic cup, and the Perky Bear Pancakes. Those were three chocolate pancakes with chocolate chips. One was the face and two smaller pancakes were the ears. These were topped with a dollop of butter. (They still give you butter scoops, often in their own cups). Another favorite meal of mine was the Captain's Catch, a plate of flounder, fried clams, shrimp and fries.

What to do while waiting? There were the kids menu activities. Mom would always pack the crayons in her purse when we left, When my youngest sister was very young, she would have my mom sing the ABCs and when she'd finish, it was assumed that the food would be ready. Mom obviously didn't know how long it would take, so she'd begin and make mistakes. When a mistake happened, she's have to start over. My sister never caught on! What we also loved to do was stack the half and half cups and jelly pouches to make towers. If my grandparents were there, we'd often help my grandpa stir creamer in his coffee, and pick out the right sugar pack (a blue Equal).

On the way out, it was home to check out the dessert. The pies always looked pretty, with swirls of topping and peanut butter cups and chocolate shavings. It was the cookies we went for, though. If my grandparents were there, Grandpa would always insist on getting the buy 3 get three free special. If it was just me and them, I'd go home with a lot of cookies! The brownies were tempting, but they were topped with nuts (no thank you). Mom always went for elephant ears, which looked like huge sugar cookies. 

There was one last step: the claw machine. Ours has never worked well and is pretty much a scam; the claw is too loose to grab anything well. Still, it was always fun to try; Mom digging out quarters from her purse. We may when won two or three times. But the best was when I was with my grandparents and sisters. The youngest wanted to try for something, so we did, knowing it wouldn't pan out, likely. Completely by accident, the beak of a stuffed eagle got stuck on the claw and l held on until it moved back to its original position! We hadn't even tried for that but it remans a memory to this day.

Any particular places my visitors liked eating at? 

2024 in Review

I'd used to keep a physical journal every year since 2014 about everything I'd done that year. That's cumbersome, so to save paper (and to share) I'm now writing it all here! 

LIFE

Highlights

*Book club was fun. We read some good books and TERRIBLE ones (Cherry and Bunny, looking at you). Also notable were Hello Beautiful, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Lady Tan's Circle of Women, and The Last House on Needless Street.

*Traveling to Colorado was fun for my second-ever solo outing---I saw wild horses and prairie dogs for the first time--- until I got back home and it wasn't. But that is a story for another day. I got to see a vintage bookstore; always cool. 

*I got the coolest reading challenge for Easter. You open an envelope and get a bookish gift for every challenge you complete. It's been fun to work on. If you're on Booksta, check my stories for updates! 

*I loved trying some recipes in books by a favorite author, Jenny Colgan. Those krispie cakes really did have too much butter, however. 

*I embarked on several journal projects this year: one was a question prompt journal my grandparents gave me for Christmas last year and the other was a five-year journal prompt project (the prompts can be found on Pinterest). 

*I started this blog to share memories. 

*Our department at work became under new leadership (meaning, new boss). 

*Our family became a bit more active in a new church; meaning my sister joined and took an active role and my mom started teaching Sunday school again.

*My hometown hosted the Budweiser Clydesdales for our Memorial Day parade. These guys are huge. No, seriously.  

*Went to my hometown's art festival for the first time. So much fun, and the bike racers were impressive. I didn't buy anything but got some ideas for another time. 

 

Lowlights

*My book club also died after somehow not being able to find a meeting place. Supposedly we meet again in March. I hope so.

*We sadly lost my grandpa in September, having to rush home from vacation to make sure we got there in time. I don't recommend ever doing that. I am grateful for 30 great years together. Always treasure time with your grandparents! 

*Trick or treating finally died in my parents' neighborhood after kids stopped visiting and homeowners just stopped trying. 

*The election. Won't go any farther.  

Sports/Culture

*The Olympics were tons of fun despite my massive headache the night of the opening ceremonies. Good to see Simone Biles again. 

*Wicked came to theaters. I don't know whether I'll see this one or not but it was wild on Booksta for a while!

*Nobody let me forget mentioning the Super Bowl! I barely remember who played, but Nick had a FANTASTIC Spongebob broadcast. No joke; they did a really good job with it. (Spongebob after a fumble: "You have to firmly grasp it!") I'm not even kidding when I'd say I'd watch one again. 

*My university's baseball team won the national championship for the first time ever. T'was much fun. 

*Anyone watch the Boeing launch? That was interesting, to say the least. I was so excited to see it during a lunch break and it got called off, only to happen when it was unavailable. They are due to return to Earth in February/March now. 

*I grew up with Wheel of Fortune; still watch it with my family. It was a bummer when Pat Sajak retired, but Ryan Seacrest seems to be doing a pretty good job. 

*Bookstagram tells me that Taylor Swift released an album or something? I don't like her newer stuff; I find her voice very bland, but it was everywhere! 

*The April solar eclipse was fun (though it was cloudy that day for me). Also very fantastic was seeing the auroras though phone cameras in October. 

*President Jimmy Carter finally passed at the end of the year.

*Trends including "brat girl summer" and "very demure" were a thing. Not to sound like an old-head but I don't care for trends that have me talk like I'm in junior high again.

Favorites

Another former journal section, I'm keeping these here too now. Tell me your favorites in the comments below.

WHAT I LISTENED TO

Coming Home; Skylar Grey
Perfect Day; Miriam Stockley 

King Creole; Elvis Presley

Celtic Woman 

Patty Gurdy, esp. Molly Malone

Ella Roberts...Danny Boy/ Skye Boat Song

White Rabbit; Jefferson Airplane  

WHAT I WATCHED 

YouTube:

*Jetting Julia

*11 ft 8 Bridge (please check this out if you haven't; it's hilarious. The bridge was raised a while back, leading to fewer crashes, but there was a bit of a renaissance this year) 

*Adam the Woo 

*Booktubers showing off their reading journals to inspire me for this year 

*"Unwrapped" clips 

And also:

*Episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. I read a book on him a while back and this year really discovered the episodes. If you haven't tried watching an episode every night...I will say you are missing out on a great sock factory tour. 

*America's Funniest Home Videos 

FAVORITE FOOD

Impossible Chicken Patties
Spanish Rice
Anything milk chocolate/chocolate oranges
Cocoa Krispies 
Barbie brand strawberry marshmallow ice cream (that is a thing!) 

WATCHED THE FOLLOWING NEW-TO-ME MOVIES 

Chicago
White Christmas
Most of Cast Away (watched whilst sick on the couch)
Lifetime suspense movies

 

BEST BOOKS READ 
The Teacher; Freida McFadden
The Merriest Misters; Timothy Janovsky
Close Knit; Jenny Colgan
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow; Gabrielle Zevin
Apple of My Eye; Allie Marie (Giancarlo)
The Housemaid; Freida McFadden  
The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo 

HOBBIES
NYT Wordle and Strands (family also got in on the act)
Writing my romance and suspense 
Book club 

Who is Ginger Makefield?

Yesterday morning, opening gifts, I received a flat square package from "Ginger Makefield." I rolled my eyes, knowing it was the same story every year.

So, what is this tradition and how did it start? 

When I was young, I liked to teach an imaginary class of dogs in the basement. It all started when I was writing random names in a Barbie notebook, imagining characters to go with them which eventually became a list of people who could be characters. I started to see it as a list of class students, pretending to make phone calls to confirm enrollment. Eventually I even got a pretend school kit, complete with a chalkboard, desk labels, attendance charts, reward jar, and much more. It was a blast. We had story time, geography with my huge book of maps, and every November I'd offer a choice of learning about families or farms. 

Eventually there was a whole list. Some of the dogs I remember were Golde (a favorite), Lober; a tall dark fellow, Abutisum (pronounced "Aaa-but-tie-some''; imagine a cross between Abu from Aladdin and an Afghan hound), Russell, Phona...and others I no longer remember. What a bummer for teachers to forget so many of their students. Shame on me!

But they were real to me, and we had fun.

One more name I remember is Ginger Makefield. Ginger didn't show up a LOT, but she was there for a while. I want to think she was fun and spunky. The name "Makefield" came, I think, from the name of the neighborhood of a family friend. 

I'm writing this story and it's occurring to me that I don't know why she always gave me a calendar. I think it was because I always liked the page-a-day ones, usually with dog photos on them. I kept one on my desk a lot as a child. 

Also what my mom did was to make gifts "from" certain people on the gift tags, real or fictional. They could be anything from "Hermey the Elf" to one of our dogs or cats. Ginger was obviously someone I mentioned quite a bit, because she "gave" me a gift one year. I guess it was the dog calendar, being a dog.

And somehow it stuck. Ginger continued to give me calendars. From 365 Dogs to Wheel of Fortune, she always came though. When I got tired of the page-a-days, she might give me something else. Perhaps something with dogs. These days, she's been giving me wall calendars. 

Though I haven't taught dog class in 21 years, Ginger still shows up in spirit every Christmas, this time giving me more useful wall calendars. Even this year...when the calendar featured a cat!  

Thanks Ginger. Merry Christmas.