Santa Party!

The pre-party started in our classroom as we gathered around with our snacks to watch an edited-for-children version of "The Elf". (Memorable quote from Buddy the elf: "Sounds like somebody needs to sing a Christmas Carol!")



We were honored to have two volunteers as our guests:


Melanie Graetz (seen here with Corey), a student at NC State from Greensboro, has been volunteering at Frankie Lemmon since October. She wants "to see what this school is all about" after long talks with friends who are also special education teachers.


Shelby Potts (in photo, left), a graduate student from Appalachian State, has been "shadowing" speech therapist Sharon Hanvey as an intern every day while on Christmas break. Hoping to be a speech therapist herself someday, Shelby follows Sharon's footsteps as she goes through her paces.


Around 11 o'clock, we marched up to the fellowship hall with the other two classes. Already present were the staff and dozens of parents and relatives, with cameras ready! Executive Director Janet Sellers bid us welcome and kicked off the main event: Santa and his big bag of Christmas gifts. She told us to enjoy ourselves. Which we did!…





Slideshow photos by Peggy Walters

P.S.  Voting is now officially closed in IKEA's Life Improvement Sabbatical Contest . We'll have to wait until January 17 to find out if our own Melissa Matthews (mother of Aiden, a child with Down syndrome) will get to spend a year (and $100,000) helping others at Frankie Lemmon. (See my December 7 blog: "The Polls are Open".) Melissa was still in the lead as the polls were closed. Thanks for your participation!