Christmas Time is Here...

Christmas time is here!Grace welcomed Christmas by creating Santa's sleigh on our couch with all of our stuffed Christmas animals and some red crepe paper. I love that child's imagination. Emma is not feeling well (we're all a little sniffly around here) so she's in her pink elephant slippers and Cinderella robe, cozed up on my bed watching movies. It's mid-morning and the girls and I are still in our pajamas. My plans for today? Danielle and her sniffly kids are coming over to watch a bunch of movies. Later, I'll grade some essays, wrap some presents, and plan my Christmas Eve dinner, which was so much fun last year.

So far in December, I've hosted Grandma Otti's 91st birthday (it was a hit!), gone to our school's adorable Christmas play, Charlie Brown Christmas, with a bunch of my teacher friends and their kids. (We even met early for pedicures and dinner, and met afterwards for dessert! I had snowflakes painted on my toes!) I've decorated the house, done 3/4 of my Christmas shopping, finished and mailed my Christmas cards (including my Christmas poem!) and planned a Christmas outing to Corvette's Diner and the Del Mar Racetrack light show. Everything "Christmasy" is in place. Still, nothing will come together until the last day of school, when I grade that last final, enter in the grades, and close up my classroom for three and 1/2 weeks. THAT will make it feel like Christmas. I love that feeling of focusing on my husband and my kids, and not feeling spread so thin (even though I adore my job.) Some days, though, it feels as if there is just not enough of me to go around. I'm ready to zero in on the people who need me the most. I want to make dinner for Jeff instead of asking him, "What do you want to eat? Should we go out?" I want to sit in my cozy chair next to the bookshelf that Jeff built (my favorite room in the house!) and read books to the girls. I want to decorate Christmas cookies and package them up to send to the neighbors. I want to put my feet up and have a glass of wine. I want to hit those last few stores with my mom and Danielle, and then go to lunch. I want to sit with Grandma Otti and ask her some questions about when she was a little girl. (She tells a bunch of funny stories, but then denies she told them.)

Thankfully, a teaching schedule gives me huge chunks of time to relax and soak in my family. I'm grateful for all of it- the hectic schedule AND the down time. I truly know the meaning of BLESSED.

PS. Our Christmas card this year- a decorated pony. We had so much fun putting red bows all over Pony Gypsi, and she didn't mind it a bit. :)