Portillo's Press 

Here we are the week before Thanksgiving, as we reflect upon our lives we all have so much to be thankful for! I hope that we all take the time to remember what is truly important – those we love and spending time with family and friends. We are going up to San Francisco to spend some time with our two daughters & son in-laws and grandbabies Isobel and Djuna. My son will be flying in from Hawaii, so it will be a wonderful time. I found out on Wednesday that my oldest is expecting a little girl in May, so exciting!!!

For our class Thanksgiving Feast we prepared/made corn on the cob, butter, pumpkin pudding, turkey sandwiches, and fruit salad.  The children dressed up in either a Native American or a Pilgrim outfit and we shared the meal, they looked quite cute and did a great job of eating their lunch. I hope they tell you lots of wonderful things about the day. Thank you to everyone who donated food and/or their time for the feast, we could not have done it without you. On Friday, we continued with the festivities! The first Thanksgiving was three days long, so they will need one more day after this one. We had fun playing some “old fashion” games, roll the hoop, keep the feather up, and pumpkin relay race. We also tried a little circle dancing!

BUTTER AND PUMPKIN PUDDING

If your child wants to make butter for your Thanksgiving, put a little heavy whipping cream in a jar (with a tight fitting lid) and a marble. Shake it for about 10 minutes and you will have butter. It was quite exciting! You may want to add a little salt to the butter once it is finished. Put it in the fridge to firm up before using.

For the Pumpkin Pudding, mix 1 can of pumpkin pie , not pumpkin mix, two or three shakes of cinnamon, 2 small boxes of vanilla instant pudding mix, and 1 cup of milk. To the mixture, add 1 large container of cool whip, stir until everything is incorporated. Chill before serving.

Boost Your School Campaign has just started. The money raised goes to the El Segundo Education Foundation, which in turn supports the schools in our district. At Center Street, we would not have our wonderful MUSIC, PE, OR READING programs without the Ed. Foundation! As a bonus, if we have 50% of our CSS families join with a donation of $100, our school site will also receive $3,500. As the economy is posing many challenges, this may be too much for your family to contribute, so we may need to think outside the box. One idea could be to pool your funds together with a another family or two.  Chevron has graciously offered to match funds up to $75,000. The BOOST CAMPAIGN will have a huge impact on ESUSD educational programs!

Wishing you and your family a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving and I will see you in a week. I hope your holiday is filled with happiness, family, friends and lots of good food.