Storytelling Sunday and Journal Your Christmas: 4th December

A bit of a two in one post today! I'll start with Journal Your Christmas, and Storytelling Sunday is below.

Journal Your Christmas

The prompt for JYC, Shimelle's wonderful Christmas class is all about dreaming of a perfect Christmas. Well, I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.

Dear Weather Providers,

I'd like to put in a request for a white Christmas this year. If it comes to that, I'd also like a beautiful house with a wraparound porch that I can sit on with a cuppa and watch it from. But failing that, the snow will do. Good snow that we can build things out of. Like that igloo years ago. Not the wrong kind of snow, because I need to catch the train home. And not of the day when I'm going to see the Nutcracker as last year the tube stopped running and I missed it. But good snow is magical and makes everyone happy and Dad would love it and we could all shovel the drive and go for a walk.

Thanks, that would be lovely,

Kirsty xxx

P.S. And I'd like my car to keep working.

*********

Storytelling Sunday

NB: All names changed

Another one from the school archives today and it concerns taking the register. As a form tutor, I take the register every day. Twice a day. This, as you can imagine, becomes a little tedious. And I don't remember how the tradition started but I do say to my form that I don't mind how they respond to the register as long as it's polite and it ends in "miss".*

They began by sharing pieces of information.

Alan?

I've got a cold miss

John?

I haven't miss

Peter?

I like Haribos miss

Dave?

There's a dairy milk wrapper down the radiator miss

Is there?

Yes miss, it's been there for three days now.

Keep me updated. Ben?

And so on. Incidentally, the dairy milk wrapper resided in the radiator quite happily for a week and a half and the register was filled with various ploys to either extract the wrapper on a weekend, Mission Impossible Style, or a range of sub-ploys from the dairy-milk-radiator-protection squad.

But I digress. Sometimes, the responses keep me on my toes.

Tom?

Miss, yes.

Oooh, I like it! Michael?

Absent miss.

Don't lie. Alex?

He's gone to the medical room miss.

Is he OK....Oooh, that was a bit cunning.

I have to visually confirm presence as well as taking the register these days. And sometimes they answer for each other to confuse me. For the nervous amongst you, I always headcount and check I've got everyone so I don't get the register wrong. That would be embarrassing.

Harry?

Don't say Ollie, miss.

...Ollie?

I thought that was pretty creative.

Sam?

My name is Sam, miss.

Yash?

My name is Yash miss.

Callum?

Sam and Yash are lying miss.

These days, we've progressed to themed registers. We pick a theme and everyone has to respond according to the theme. So when the theme is chocolate bars, each person has to answer with a previously unmentioned chocolate bar. Everyone except Mike who's got a bet with Nikhil that he can answer every register all year with a different quote from Harry Potter. He's therefore exempt from all themes.

Previous themes have included Pokemon, Animals that taste like chicken, Types of Haribos and speed registering against the clock. When the bell is about to go and I haven't done the register yet. One of my favourite themes was Colour.

Right gents, one again it's that time of day when I read out all your names in alphabetical order or you indicate your presence or otherwise appropriately. Colour is our theme, attendance is our purpose. Are we ready?

But there aren't 29 colours miss!

You're right, there are way more, so off we go.

...

We got quite far before there was a problem.

...

Andrew?

Dark metallic blue miss

Mike?

You're a wizard Harry miss

Matthew?

Dark metallic green miss

Peter?

Light miss

Light what?

Just light

That's not a colour.

Technically as a scientist, he's right.

OK David, I will allow that light it composed of different colours, but white light is all the colours in the spectrum mixed together. So I don't think you can call it a colour. Pick another one Peter.

Silver then miss.

David?

Can I have microwave miss?

It's not part of the visible spectrum is it?

But someone's already had vermillion.

It's a hard world David. Pick another colour.

...

We did get to the end though. Eventually.

Well done folks. And there's loads of colours we haven't even used. We could have had lilac, mauve, sand, aquamarine....that colour they always paint new houses in...Man, what's that called?

Oooh, I know what you mean miss.

Eggshell?

Dove?

Beige?

Angel White?

No, no, no...begins with m. I've got mahogany stuck in my head but it's not that. This is going to annoy me all day. So nobody leaves...I don't care if the bell goes...Nobody leaves until we work it out.

...

...

MAGNOLIA!!!

Oh, brilliant! You're a star. Off you go now then, time for learning.

Apparently I have a form of budding interior designers. Angel White? I ask you...

***************

For more stories, hop on over to the lovely Sian's blog, From High in the Sky. This is the last one of the year, and it's been wonderful to read about others' lives and memories. Merry Christmas, storytellers.

Kisses xxx

P.S. The misted snowflake mask idea is totally inspired by (read stolen from) a blogger somewhere on the internet doing JYC but I can't find their blog again. If it was you, let me know and I will credit you with the fabulousness you deserve :D

*There was the day when I tried out chief and after going through the register with a series of unconvincing "Yes Chief"s, I realised I probably couldn't pull it off. The form were unanimous in their agreement. Wretches.