Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!

Last week at school, a couple of my students asked me why we say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Christmas" and not "merry" any other holiday.

I didn't know and I was about to say that it must be some obscure British-ism, when I realized that in England now they say "Happy Christmas". (This thanks to Harry Potter, who has increased my knowledge of British-isms tenfold. Anyone want to go snog under some mistletoe?)

After much searching on the internet, I found the most coherent answer on Wikipedia.

"Merry," derived from the Old English myrige, originally meant merely "pleasant" rather than joyous or jolly (as in the phrase "merry month of May").
Though Christmas has been celebrated since the 4th century AD, the first known usage of any Christmastime greeting, "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" (thus incorporating two greetings) was in an informal letter written by an English admiral in 1699. The same phrase appeared in the first Christmas card, produced in England in 1843.
The then relatively new term "Merry Christmas" figured prominently in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in 1843. The cynical Ebenezer Scrooge rudely deflects the friendly greeting and broods on the foolishness of those who utter it. "If I could work my will," says Scrooge, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding." After the Spirits of Christmas effect his transformation, he is able to heartily exchange the wish with all he meets. The continued popularity of A Christmas Carol and the Victorian era Christmas traditions it typifies have led some to credit Dickens with popularizing, or even originating, the phrase "Merry Christmas"^[3].
The alternative "Happy Christmas" gained wide usage in the late 19th century, and is still common in the United Kingdom and Ireland. One reason may be the alternative meaning, still current there, of "merry" as "tipsy" or "drunk." Queen Elizabeth II is said to prefer "Happy Christmas" for this reason^[4]. In American poet Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (1823), the final line, originally written as "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night," has been changed in many editions to "Merry Christmas to all", perhaps indicating the relative popularity of the phrases in the United States."

So, should we say "Happy Christmas" too? I guess we North Americans are just drunken fools.....

This cracked me up the first time I watched it, and I'm not even a huge fan of Mr. Bean!

Simon and the mouse, Part Deux

So this week, one day (I forget which), we went to go up the stairs and there was a dead mouse. We don't know for sure if it was the same one Simon was chasing the other night, but we never did find that one. My theory is that it hid out in a crack somewhere where Simon couldn't get him for a couple days and finally came out in desperation to get back downstairs because it was hungry....at which time it met its demise. Good cat!

Teaching has its perks....

So, I've found that I tend to like teaching at the high school level better than at the middle school level. I like middle school more than I thought I would, but it's still a weird in-between time.

However, in high school, you don't get the cute pictures from kids to hang on your wall and cute notes like the one I got yesterday. It reads:
"Mrs. Martin I think que somos muy malos con usted pero yo la quiero mucho...."
"I think we behave very bad for you but I love you very much...."

Of course, predictably, this is from a 5th grade girl who behaves perfectly fine but just feels bad because she happens to be stuck in my worst-behaved class.

Also, yesterday, I had the best idea all year....About 10 minutes before class started, I decided that for Friday's Preferred Activity Time, I'd have my two middle school classes make a Christmas/winter bulletin board. It was awesome, because they loved doing it, they did a really good job, and....I hate making bulletin boards! Goodbye to ever doing that job myself again!

Sleepy....but good Simon!

Last night Simon kept us up for a while chasing a mouse around upstairs. Suddenly there was this clatter of running cat feet, which continued on and off for an hour or two. We're not actually sure he killed this one because we didn't find it yet, (I'm a little afraid I'll step on it sometime) but he did certainly seem to terrorize it. (It could also be heard running around and squeaking in terror!)

Yet another benefit of having a cat in an old house.....don't need to buy mousetraps! He's happy to chase them around and kill them. (Well, actually, I think he likes them better alive because they're better toys that way, but one poor mouse can only stand so much....)

Of course, Simon could still use a few lessons in the art of mouse-hunting. For example, the other night he found what is probably a mouse hole in the wall, since it's big enough and he was pawing at it and meowing plaintively, which means he could probably smell something. He was quite determined to wait there until a mouse came out. However, it seems to me that it would work much better if he wouldn't sit right in front of the hole.

Mouse child: Mom, can we go out and play?
Mouse mom: Let's see, oh look! There's a big, ferocious predator right outside the hole! It looks like a great time to go out!
Mouse children: Hurray! Big ferocious predator! Let's go!

Well, you get the point....