I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving break with many meaningful moments spent with family and friends. Hopefully the rest and enjoyment of that time is still with you as you plan ahead for a busy December. As experienced Cascade Ridge families know, the next few weeks before our first Winter Break will be busy in every classroom, and our kids have much to learn and many activities and projects to enjoy!

As we move into this season, I am, again, reminded of how generous and giving this community is. We have many chances in our community to provide to those who are less fortunate, especially in December. Most notably here at Cascade Ridge, our PTSA sponsors Caring Through Sharing that provides a wonderful opportunity to give to families who could really use a few helping hands and caring hearts. You should already be getting information from your classroom representatives for Caring Through Sharing. I encourage you to take advantage of this program to generously give from the heart. We, as a community, truly benefit from giving back, and I know the families in the program really appreciate the caring and generosity that expands exponen-tially through this program. Please look for more information in this Howler, on our website, and in the Coyote Connection that hits your email each week.

There are also more fun activities happening through the PTSA in December. For our second year in a row, we will have our Book Fair in December (8th – 10th) to provide the opportunity for families to do some holiday shopping. This event also coincides on its final day with Winterfest, which is a festive event for families and kids to enjoy making holiday-themed crafts, expend some energy with fun activities, enjoy some tasty treats, and to catch up with friends. We hope everyone will come and enjoy both events. It is sure to help you get into a cheerful holiday mood if you haven‘t already! The sign-up to attend Winterfest has been added to our website and online process, so it is easy to participate and enjoy!

Once we get into the new year, we will be off and running with many more initiatives and events. Very importantly, at our January 27th meeting we plan to review and vote on recommendations from the community as to how to best spend our extra $25,000 funds this year. In order to spend the money in a timely manner so our students and classrooms will readily benefit from these funds, we will be making important decisions at that meeting. Please read the related article in this newsletter so you can participate in this significant PTSA process.

We will also have more fun family and education events coming in the second half of the year. In January, we will have our annual Fine Arts Night on January 28th, and because it was so readily received last year, we will again have yummy teriyaki meals for all to enjoy. What a fun way to come and experience the amazing artwork of all our children and mix it with good food and friends! Please consider attending and also in joining our team in making it another exciting and fun evening at Cascade Ridge.

I hope your month will be filled with many joyful experiences, and much time spent with family and friends.

Happy Holidays!

Tina Yerges, PTSA President