The week before. It is saturated with the energy of a starved, possibly caffeinated, cruelly confined wolf who can see well-fed deer at the edge of its field of vision, hobbling along, all with sturdy flanks suspended over weak ankles and knock knees, ripe for the picking. It rumbles. It snaps. It paces the edges of its cage.

We let the wolf out the last day before break.

First, it played soccer on the Upper Field. There were a lot of fouls in the game and none of those World Cup-inspired histrionics, just sharp rebuttal tackles in the snow, a goalie who snarled and whipped the ball back to restart the game, and, naturally (because this is all a metaphor stretched fairly thin now), a lot of smiles and jokes and gentle nudging.

After it bored of the game, it mounted snowshoes, however awkwardly, and trundled through the packed powder for a clomping 30 or 40 yards and returned to Mr. Cardamone, who was desperately trying to keep up with the line of students asking for help in strapping on more snowshoes, and took them off, declaring, "That wasn't every exciting." It threw a football, went back to soccer, and eventually wandered around the school in search of hot chocolate and crafts, mumbling something about the "12 Days of Christmas in the gym."

That came soon enough. If you are not familiar with the tradition, it goes something like this: Each grade yells the part of the song that coincides with their grade. They get to scream it each time it comes around, which means Grade 12 gets only one glorious moment to shine, and the youngest of the bunch leave with hoarse voices, red cheeks, and frazzled teachers. Performing Arts Teacher Tyler Eighmey provided musical accompaniment on the piano while students held up cards reminding the grades which part of the song was theirs. It was loud – stretching the upper bounds of the audible human register with some assistance from the airplane-hangar acoustics of the gym – and fun, and a little exhausting, and all warmed over by a generous measure of tolerance from a faculty that was happy to see their kids finally celebrate this wild day after years and years of not.

Athletics note: The most-recent athletics schedule is always available through Schedule Galaxy and can be accessed on the MPH Calendar page or via the Schedule Galaxy mobile app. The schedule included below is subject to change after the date of distribution, so please check Schedule Galaxy before heading out to a contest.

5:30 p.m. JV Basketball vs. Jordan-Elbridge

7:00 p.m. Varsity Basketball vs. Jordan-Elbridge

5:30 p.m. JV Volleyball vs. McGraw

7:00 p.m. Varsity Volleyball vs. McGraw

5:30 p.m. JV Basketball @ Cato-Meridian

7:00 p.m. Varsity Basketball @ Cato-Meridian

3 p.m. Ski Club

5:30 p.m. JV Volleyball @ Onondaga Central

7:00 p.m. Varsity Volleyball @ Onondaga Central

5:30 p.m. JV Basketball @ LaFayette

7:00 p.m. Varsity Basketball @ LaFayette

MPH students in Ms. Kuo's Mandarin Chinese class have been experiencing cultural and language exchanges with students from the MingLun High School in Taiwan with the benefit of synchronous Zoom meetings this year. Students have had conversations about various topics, and the students from MingLun even sent MPH holiday cards in December.

NOTE: The only option for delivery of these orders is shipping to an address customers provide. There will be no orders from this store delivered to the school.

The official Manlius Pebble Hill clothing store is now live with a wide variety of selections for all sizes, genders, and ages. A couple key points:

You'll find the weekly lunch menu here in Snapshot every Friday, but it also lives on the MPH website (you can find it through the direct link or on the left column of myMPH). And this week we welcome the return of Nutrislice, which lets users sort menu items by nutritional data, ingredients, and allergens.

Congratulations to Alexa Rose Battaglia (violin) and Kari Maxian (viola), who will be representing MPH at the Onondaga Music Educators Association Senior High All-County Festival this weekend. The festival will conclude with a performance at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday^, at the Cicero-North Syracuse High School Auditorium. Tickets are available at the door.

The deadline for creating a senior tribute ad in the yearbook is February 5, and the page can be created at the Jostens Yearbooks Ads for Seniors site. If anyone has any questions, contact Amy Hogan.

Join fellow MPH families and staff on Monday, January 16, at 1:00 p.m., when the Syracuse Crunch hosts Utica Comets. MPH’s very own Core Health Teacher Jay Brown, who will be refereeing in the game.

Tickets are $10 per person per ticket (regular price tickets are $20, and MPH is covering half the cost of tickets). Fifty tickets are available. Limit 6 tickets per transaction. Parking and food are not included for this event. Tickets must be purchased by Friday, January 13. Your purchased tickets will be at the will call box office on Monday, January 16.

Please email Alyssa Palmer with any questions: apalmer@mphschool.org.

Front row: Gabe Pasniciuc, Sophie Menacho, Isaiah Clarry-Sohriakoff, Jack Hogan

Second(ish) row: Tommy Wildhack, Alex Abrams, Ryan Kinane, Miguel Gonzalez, Simon Hoke, Brendan O’Malley

Back row: Anna Abrams

Registration is now open for the Winter/Spring 2023 session. See our website for additional information and to register or call the Community Programs office at 315-446-2452.

Manlius Pebble Hill School | 315-446-2452 | mphschool.org