Jerome

Album cover for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Jingle All the Way. Features a decorated Christmas tree with gifts underneath against a beige-cream background

#3: Bela Fleck and the Flecktones: Jingle All the Way

The band brings their unique jazz-world-bluegrass fusion to Christmas classics in a way that is delightfully weird at times (Jingle Bells with Tibetan throat singers) and virtuosic at others. There's nothing else like it. Might be my favorite!

Album cover for Nonesuch records Renaissance Choral Music for Christmas

#2: Nonesuch Records, Renaissance Choral Music for Christmas

There's probably a dozen similar albums I could have used instead. There's something so immensely beautiful about Renaissance music in general, and the Christmas hymns and songs are my favorite genre of Christmas music

Day 11 of Good Things from the year:

Today we had a 2-hour delay due to slick road conditions. I love teaching, but the month of December is tough! That was just the bonus rest I needed after a couple of busy weeks post-Thanksgiving.

the "aww you're sweet / hello, human resources?!" meme with Trevor Zegras saying "I have 27 points" and Travis Konecny saying "I have 25 points"

Flyers fans be like

What the f***

I'm so sorry about that, that should be illegal. Honestly, so should closed adoptions without a PFA or something like that

Definitely!

I'm still ironing out the details but it looks like I'll be in Houston for a week at the beginning of August

Ack, I almost forgot Day 10!

Another good thing that happened to me this year was (mostly) giving up video games. Instead, I use that time to spend 1-on-1 time with my kids or connect with an old friend or family member I haven't talked to in a while. It's awesome! I don't miss video games

two squirrels are sitting on a tree branch ALT: two squirrels are sitting on a tree branch

Oh no, it's like this x10 lol. But today *should be* my last crazy busy day until 2026 and my anxiety is starting to settle down

My wolves have vacated the premises. It's just a bunch of squirrels running around

She still owes you those cards

Oooh, gotta be gathering for me. Love finding a delicious wild berry

The shepherds from Nest Entertainment's adaptation of Jesus's nativity. Jubilee from the 90s X-men cartoon has been Photoshopped into the scene. And it's a pretty good Photoshop job too, if I do say so myself.

Shepherds, why this Jubilee?

Salisbury: Kyle Schwarber gets Big 5 to stay with Phillies and chase World Series, Cooperstown - PHLY Sports The logjam has broken at the winter meetings – just the way the Phillies hoped it would, just the way most of the baseball world thought it would.

It's funny to see Cooperstown brought up here. Schwarber has a real chance to hit 500 HR, presumably substance-free. That used to be a lock for the Hall. However, he only has 19.9 WAR through his age-32 season. If he produces like he did last year for the next five years, he lands at 53.4.

So basically, he would have to replicate his career high in WAR through his age 37 season to get close to David Ortiz's WAR. I don't see anything close to that happening! His path likely lies through a committee if and only if he hits magic 500.

Salisbury: Kyle Schwarber gets Big 5 to stay with Phillies and chase World Series, Cooperstown - PHLY Sports The logjam has broken at the winter meetings – just the way the Phillies hoped it would, just the way most of the baseball world thought it would.

It's funny to see Cooperstown brought up here. Schwarber has a real chance to hit 500 HR, presumably substance-free. That used to be a lock for the Hall. However, he only has 19.9 WAR through his age-32 season. If he produces like he did last year for the next five years, he lands at 53.4.

#Flyers 4th line goal!!!

like I will entertain any and all arguments that there are use cases for ai in things like medicine

but please, we really do have to keep it away from the purely creative expression of literal children

Album cover, Pete Seeger - Traditional Christmas Carols. Pete's sitting in front of a fireplace with a banjo

#FavoriteChristmasAlbums

#1: Pete Seeger, Traditional Christmas Carols

Pete plays a variety of folk tunes and hymns with banjo and vocals.

What makes this album special is that he plays these songs beautifully. His mother collected early folk tunes, including some of these lesser known songs!

#FavoriteChristmasAlbums

I've listened to a ton of Christmas music over the years. I can't stand a lot of popular Christmas music and want to highlight some of my favorites, most of which are lesser known. I'll try to get one per day!

Dvorak!!!! #Flyers

To be clear, I still love the Astros! Jim Crane (and basically every pro sports owner) can kick rocks

Baseball Hall of Fame, beer, and (sorry) hockey

Top 10 middle grades book for me, and I read a ton of those books as a 4th grade Literacy teacher

This would be my ballot, except sub Rollins for somebody other than Utley or Beltran

Right now they are limited to 50 teams, and this puts them at 48. Of course I could easily see this changing

Good Things from this year, Day 9:

I love being a union leader! This year my union won an award for growth, and we're poised to add even more unionized charter schools to our numbers this year. We won't stop until every charter school in PA is organized!

Astros press release announcing that they are selling their minor league teams to Diamond Baseball Holdings, a private equity firm

Man, f*** the #Astros for selling out to private equity

Day 7: Flyers are having a great start to the season and look like they might actually be a decent team

Day 8: We got more $$ back from the insurance company than we expected after I hit a deer 6 weeks ago. That allowed us to avoid digging into our emergency savings

Looks like I need to catch up a bit!
Day 4: I have a wonderful group of 4th graders that I teach

Day 5: I saw one of the best symphony performances of my life yesterday (Shostakovich 5)

Day 6: Astros were better than I in expected at the beginning of the year (I thought they'd be .500)