Duggan Family Christmas Card 2015

For my blog post this week, I am publishing the Christmas card I sent through the snail mail to my family and friends. Now I am sharing it with my faithful reader friends. Enjoy this sneak peek into my daily life! 

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Holidays from the Duggans! We hope that you are having a healthy and safe winter. In putting together our annual recap, I am reminded that yet another busy year has flown by!

Dan is still a software engineer at Hewlett-Packard. He recently volunteered for the Hour of Code, helping out in a 5th grade classroom in one of the local school districts.

I still teach K-6 General Music in the Boise School District and direct 60+ 4th, 5th, and 6th graders in the Grace Jordan Elementary Choir.

In 2015, I also had the opportunity to perform in Into the Woods as Cinderella and Chess as Florence Vassy with the Music Theater of Idaho. I was nominated for a local Broadway World award for my role in Chess, as well as for my portrayal of Johanna in 2014’s Sweeney Todd.

(Voting is open through December 31 at http://www.broadwayworld.com/boise/vote2015region.cfm if anyone is interested. Wink. Wink. ;))

I will continue performing this year, first as Rose Lennox in musical version of The Secret Garden and then as Laurey in Oklahoma.

Dan and I spent a lot of the summer mountain biking and hiking in McCall and Sun Valley. We took a trip to the Oregon Coast and spent some time at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the second year in a row. We also went to Seattle and visited a Star Wars costume exhibit from the Smithsonian.

We had an addition to our family in early August . . .

Don’t get your hopes up! He’s not ours. But he is my new, adorable nephew, Desmond Revis Turner, born to Steve and Kali Turner (my brother and sister-in-law).

Dan and I are celebrating our twelfth wedding anniversary this December. We are participating in a Christmas Fun Run with my school’s running team the weekend of our anniversary. It’s a great way to send my school kiddos into break after two long weeks of winter concerts and holiday programs!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love, Becky and Dan 

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.

Crazy Program Time!

Dashing down the hall,
Excitement in the air.
Hear the joyful sounds.
Is that another gray hair?
Christmas time at school.
One more class to teach.
Then a meeting after school.
Wish Friday was in reach!
Oh, Christmas time here at school
Tensions growing higher.
One more week until we’re through.
I wish I could retire, oh,
Christmas time here at school
Everyone is stressed.
Hope we get some time to see
How much we all are blessed!

by Kim Thompson 

("Sing to the tune of 'Jingle Bells,'" she says. "Yes, you must sing!")

Music teachers are a strange breed. We kind of thrive on the stress of putting together winter concerts, getting up in front of hundreds of parents and family members, and directing hundreds of kids dressed in festive clothing, Santa hats, reindeer antlers, elf hats . . . use your imagination.

And most of us in this chosen profession are crazy enough to enjoy all of it.

In the days leading up to my programs, my husband, Dan, thinks I am funny.

Often times, I wake him in the middle of night talking in my sleep, saying things like, “You’re not the one who has to do a concert tomorrow.”

While awake, however, I find it difficult to construct a normal sentence and process most of what Dan says to me, even if he is answering a question I just asked him.

This year, some of my favorite moments came from the first and second grade winter program.

My choir kids also provided me with some entertainment the week before, during their concert. They are quite theatrical.

But I've chosen to focus on my little kids' program since it is freshest in my mind.


1. A few weeks ago, one second grader asked me if my husband was going to wear a wig again.

The kids all know my husband, Dan, because he sets up for the programs and videotapes the performances. (Yeah, Dan's pretty awesome.)

Dan has long hair. The second grader thinks my husband wears a wig.


2. One of my first graders has been apprehensive about walking up and down the risers all year long.

"I'm kind of scared of heights, Mrs. Duggan," she says to me in class.

"You and me both," I always respond.

During the program practices, I had been helping her up and down the steps to the stage since I knew about this phobia of hers.

In the middle of the morning program, she announced to the audience, "I'm actually not scared of heights anymore," as she descended the stage steps.

(I wish it were that easy for me, to simply not be scared of heights anymore.)

During the afternoon performance, the same little girl got distracted by the ribbons on the mics and forgot to say her line. The child next to her had to remind her.


3. The first graders sang a song called "Hip Hop Elves."

They were allowed to bring "hip hop accessories," and, the definition being somewhat ambiguous, we ended up with an interesting variety of hip hop elf costumes.

But my favorite part was the little girl on the second row, moving her arms and chanting, "Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah!" during the dance break.


4. Even the younger siblings wanted to join us.

A couple of little sisters, toddler or preschool age, wandered to the front of the gym and froze, staring at the kids and me. I leaned over at one point and asked one little girl if she was lost.


5. The sixth grade boys loved it.

And that's saying something. Most sixth grade are too cool to admit liking anything.

But one of my students said, "Mrs. Duggan! That was THE BEST Christmas program I have EVER seen!"

Another boy commented on how adorable the kids were.

(I do have sweet group of sixth graders this year.)

So . . . yes, I am crazy enough to enjoy this job. But I think I'm ready to take a nap for the next two weeks.

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.

Making the Case for Frozen (RE-POST FROM 12/14/14)

Around this time last year, I saw Frozen for the first time and wrote about the experience in my blog. Enjoy this re-post from December 2014!
 

Last summer, Dan and I saw Gracie Gold skate in the Sun Valley Ice Show. During one of her solos, she floated out onto the ice, dressed in a glittery, robin egg blue leotard. A hush fell over the audience, and the music began.

All of a sudden, the parents in the audience collectively groaned, "Oh . . ." while the little girls beside them squealed and started to sing along.

Gracie Gold was skating to "Let it Go," the smash hit from the phenomenon known as Frozen.

I finally watched Frozen last weekend. I know. I'm about a year behind everyone else in the world.

I am not a mom, but I try to stay hip to kids' stuff because of my job. Even Dan watched it with me.

"I'm curious," he said.

I think it was mostly because he wanted to see what Robert Lopez, who composed the songs with his lyricist wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, would do with a kids' movie. Robert Lopez composed the music for Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon. (If you're not sure why this is significant, just Google it. You'll find out quickly.)

And the Lopez team did have some fun with the lyrics. Case in point: "Why have a ballroom with no balls?"

This year, I bought a Frozen songbook for my music classes. My choir students (even some of the boys) make me lead a Frozen sing along before rehearsal most mornings. I try to avoid the ballroom-with-no-balls song.

I have heard from parents that siblings fight over who gets to like Elsa and who gets to like Anna. One parent I talked to was relieved that one of her little girls was on Team Anna and the other was on Team Elsa.

The other day, I was trying to appear cool to a three-year-old, and I mistakenly pronounced "Anna" with a short vowel (rhyming it with Hannah). I was immediately corrected.

"It's Anna," the three-year-old said with a royal air, pronouncing the "a" vowels "ah" (like in father).

I decided I had better watch the movie so that I didn't lose all credibility with the six hundred kids that darken my classroom door everyday.

The verdict?

I thought it was a great story, surprisingly focused on the strength of the female characters, although their waists are still too small.

One of my Frozen fanatic students said with a knowing grin, "I bet you loved the 'Let it Go' scene."

I did and not just because of the awesome animation sequence where she flips her hands around and creates the best ice palace ever.

I had heard a lot of my music friends complain about "Let it Go" being poorly written and overplayed and badly sung by amateurs. But the song is about a woman's coming of age, and she doesn't even have to get married at the end, like in most Disney princess movies.

In fact, Anna, who takes the typical Disney princess route and falls in love at first sight instead of getting to know the guy first, actually finds out Prince Charming is not so charming.

Elsa, however, is going to do things the way she wants, not the way her society wants. She is not going to hide the feminine power that makes her unique and a little dangerous. The song's message is one of women's liberation, except her waist is still too small.

My students know Idina Menzel now. They think they discovered her. Never mind her almost-twenty-year theater career. But Frozen has made this Broadway veteran a household name for my kiddos. I love it.

I have deep conversations with my kindergartners now on the science of Olaf and how he loves the warm summer, but if he gets too warm he will melt, so Elsa gives him his own cloud, and that is so exciting. And then we get up and pretend to melt like snowmen to music. I am teaching high and low, and the kindergartners don't even know what hit them.

The kids at school keep telling me about a Frozen sequel. I'm not sure how that will work out because . . . you know . . . origin stories.

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.

It's Cozy Clothes Season, Folks!

Everybody has been complaining about the cold weather that has settled upon us, but I have been waiting for Cozy Clothes Season all year long.

I live in my yoga pants during the winter . Am I wearing underwear? Probably not. I try to underwear as little as possible while donning yoga pants. But you will never really know because I won't tell you.

I love winter hats that cover up crazy wind hair, although during the school day, I am not supposed to wear them. I'm required to be a good example for all of my preteen students who constantly sneak into my classroom wearing hoods.

I'm with you, kids. I want to wrap up in my sweatshirt at this time of year too.

I love my (faux) furry winter boots, an especially comfy pair of shoes when your profession requires you to be on your feet all day.

Just yesterday, one child blurted out, "I like your boots, Mrs. Duggan!" right when the kids were in the middle of clapping a four-beat rhythm.

So . . . I get compliments on my awesome boots, especially at inappropriate times.

At home, I change into flannel pajamas immediately before I cook dinner. And I live in yoga pants and hoodies on the weekends when I don't have to look professional.

One time (and only once) my husband, Dan, questioned my Cozy Clothes Season fashion choice.

"Are you really going out in public wearing yoga pants?" he asked.

My response to his scrutiny ended up in a blog post entitled, "Yoga Pants and Feminist Experiments."

Occasionally though, a concerned Dan will ask me, "Didn't you wear your yoga pants to bed last night?"

"Who knows?" I answer. "Maybe. Maybe not. It's Cozy Clothes Season. Anything goes." 

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.