On match day, I got a lovely RedditGifts message from my Dino-Santa, letting me know that I wouldn't be forgotten.

While I had mentioned that I am a (currently taking a sabbatical from the classroom) high school science teacher who has been asked to teach Earth Science (a mix of oceanography, geology, paleontology, meteorology, and astronomy) every year she has been in the classroom (though my specialty and university degrees are in Chemistry) and asked for things that might be useful in a classroom environment, I never expected that the gifts would pamper me, as well.

Then today I awoke to a gift that is less for my students and more for myself!!! It is nice to be pampered! Dino-Santa had read my bio and found out that I am a crafty sort who crochets and sent me a pattern for creating THREE different types of dinosaur! This, alone, would have been enough (I could have crocheted the example dinos and used them in the classroom even though a crochet project would have been total selfish pleasure for me).

... but then my Dino-Santa informed me that there were two additional packages arriving: one on this very day and one sometime in the next week. More? !! Say it isn't so! My Dino-Santa is spoiling me!

I will update as these other packages arrive. Thank you Dino-Santa!

~~~ /// ~~~

Update 01: I GOT A TRILOBITE FOSSIL ZOMG!!!!!111one!!!!

I mentioned that while it wasn't technically a dinosaur (it is an arthropod), my favorite "old" fossil type creature is that of a trilobite. If you aren't already in love with trilobites, check out http://www.trilobites.info/trilobite.htm and prepare to break up with your current fossil love.

If someone is going to get me a trilobite anything, I'd think it would be a poster, stuffed animal, cartoon, but never would have expected an ACTUAL trilobite! And yet, buried inside a box filled to the brim with newspaper (all the better to keep the rock intact) was an actual trilobite fossil that is about an inch long. I'm in heaven. Absolute heaven.

I am going to store him on a shelf next to Fred-the-Horseshoe-Crab, his great-great-great-great-great-et al grandson. Hopefully I can remember to take Fred down from his place of honor and have a multi-generational family photo of the two of them. The students are going to be in awe that they get to have a tactile relationship with a real fossil and that it isn't under glass in a museum where they have to "touch with your eyes".

Until then, thank you so much Dino Santa! You have gone above and beyond, twice!, and I cannot believe there is still more to come.

~~~ /// ~~~

Update 02: And this time it was something that was definitely for my students: a dinosaur family tree with musculo-skeletal accurate images of the various dinosaur body types.

I have carefully re-rolled it and stored it so that it doesn't get damaged before I can get it laminated. The question is (help me! answer this in the comments) should I get it simply laminated and use it all floppy-like or should I skip the lamination and get it mounted on foam board? Those of you who were students most recently, which would be more useful for a teacher to do with a poster that isn't purely decorative?