You're a virgin who can't drive.

Ah, vacation time. I love it. Only a few things planned between now and next Monday. Most of my plans involve alcohol, french fries, or my credit card.

Here are a few recent, random pics.

Wednesday was the last day of school before vacation. Six or seven students gave me some lovely presents, ranging from an angel ornament with a jingle ball on it (it looks great on my menorah) to a beat up, dirty polar bear stuffed animal that one of my girls must've found in her room and decided to hand to me. But one of my favorites was from a sweet girl who gave me "diamond" earrings. I have my "Oh my gosh, those are BEAUTIFUL!!" routine perfected. I'm dreading having to wear them to school one day though. It's just a guess, but I suspect my ear lobes will not react too nicely to them.



Secondly, I got a nice reminder on the day before vacation that I need to review abbreviations with my class. Either that, or at least one of my kids thinks I'm a man.



And lastly, I had the rare opportunity to not only go out for dinner and drinks last night on a Sunday, but to also stay late enough for trivia. Our team, Way Harsh Ty, placed 5th, which was really quite remarkable since we were among the smallest groups playing. We had a strong start, but sort of fell off in the second half, as you'll see from one of our answer sheets that was decidedly not turned in.



In case you're wondering, the question asked for the name of the computer virus that wrecked PCs at the beginning of 2009.

The one where I don't complain about work so much.

It's Last-Day-Of-School-Before-Vacation Eve. One of my favorite nights of the year. My gifts for the teachers who help me do battle teach in my classroom each week are all wrapped up, I have 26 freshly sharpened winter pencils ready to give to my kids, and I have not a smidge of work to do tonight.

I have a fantastic day planned tomorrow, with an all-school assembly during reading workshop, my kids' biography project presentation in our "living museum" during literacy tomorrow, and an astronomy video during writing and math. I am as giddy as, uhhh, someone about to be off until January 4th.

In some ways, I feel like I have been in school forever and ever and ever. (And ever and ever and ever). I never thought this day would come. But it also kind of amazes me that it could possibly be Christmas vacation already. That could be because we are still spending at least 2 recesses each week practicing classroom routines like lining up since we still can't manage to do it like 3rd graders. Anyway, the year always seems to zip by when we come back in January. MCAS will be a mere 3.5 months away when we come back and we'll be getting into full panic mode, making the weeks go by even more quickly.

It's practically summer, even though you wouldn't know it by the slushy/salty/icy mix covering most of my car.

The Trifecta

Winter is officially upon us.

How do I know? Afterall, it hasn't snowed more than a few inches, which quickly melted away. My ears haven't burned from coldness in the walk to my car. I have not yet fallen on ice.

I know that winter is here because I ended Halloween season this evening by tossing the remaining 2 pumpkins in the trash, thus bringing on winter. I LOOOOVE Halloween and have a hard time finishing it. I also don't like putting stuff away. Therefore, it was not all that surprising that Halloween decorations adorned the apartment during the holiday apartment last weekend (hey, we called it a "Holiday" party...we didn't say anything about a winter holiday party).

See?



If you look closely on the window sill, you can see the trifecta of holidays, merging as one massive candy/light-up-stuff/sparkly fest--the pumpkins, menorah, and candles for Christmas. And if the camera had turned just slightly left or right, you would see a nutcracker near a Halloween bowl of candy corn, a Christmas village next to rubber duckies in Halloween costumes, and of course the massive tree.

I like having pumpkins in the house; it's all outdoorsy and they hold on to the tiny last bit of summer since I watched them grow all summer. I like how the menorah looks with candles in it, and it smells like childhood when they go out each night. And the apartment always feels kind of empty when the Christmas tree finally gets kicked to the curb sometime in mid-February. Which makes me think, would it really be so bad to keep the symbols of the trifecta of holidays out all year round?