It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas . . .

Today is the last day of school for this semester.   The kids will ride the bus home and be on holiday until January 5th.  I'm glad.  I miss them.  Beginning in January, however, I will be driving the two older ones to school and back . . . the youngest will still take the bus round trip as long as there is bus service.  I touched on this topic a few posts ago.  The "state" is saying the money will run out March 1st unless the BOE gives up the cash to keep the buses going.  Well, their half (or portion) anyway.  They raised the rates by 50% for third quarter for the parents.  They also extended no bus service for those living 1.5 miles from the school from the previous 1 mile.  Nice, huh?  Having no bus service (or at least the BOE messing with the contracts) as well as basically sticking it to our kids by taking away school days from an already short year by Stateside comparison:  wow.  The education system is not important in Hawaii.  It's hard not to have that opinion.  Not enough people care. 

Teenie and I ran off to Ben Franklin's craft store and got some buttons (we bought them all out, in fact) and wire to make ornaments for her friends.  I must say, I saw the wreath one on the Gum Tree blog c/o Jenny of Elefantz.  I'm so glad I suggested this for Teenie as she was getting flustered about what to do for her friends.  She's so creative, she went beyond the wreath and made a tree!  And, speaking of her creative side, the aluminum helmet she made based on Monty Python's Holy Grail.  The boys made some fighting pieces and a Roman helmet (no pics).  Funny stuff!  See why I miss them when they're not here?

The last picture should be the one of the Oklahoma memorial on December 7th Remembering Pearl Harbor Day.