Em and I both had 9 days off for the holidays. Not many school districts organize their
years that way, and I’m so glad ours does.
One thing that I was not prepared for in transitioning from teaching high
schoolers to teaching fourth graders was the holiday hysteria that apparently
targets anyone younger than 10.
My last day before the break was a hurricane of hyped-up
kids, food, and even a couple of parents.
My homeroom had a Thanksgiving Feast for lunch, which involved a couple
platefuls of Turkey, mashed potatoes, and the fixings. The mixture of unstructured holiday
celebrations and vacation anticipation proved too much for most of my kids to
handle. There were tears, near-vomiting,
more tears, and a game of jeopardy that resulted in a tiny riot. Whew.
I was ready for the break.
Em and I went to Jim and JoAnn’s for Thanksgiving. A couple of months ago, Em was overtaken by
some serious Martha Stewart urges, and she has been knocking any and all meals
she attempts out of the ballpark.
Thanksgiving was no different. It
was one of the best feasts I’ve ever had.
Mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, amazing stuffing, great turkey,
butternut squash mixture, broccoli crisp, homemade bread…my plate looked like
an episode of Hoarders. To use a common
Gasper phrase—“I packed it in.”
Other than eating, we did a whole bunch of TV watching,
reading, biking, and relaxing. That’s
what being responsible for the daily well being of so many kids has done to
us—we are relaxation junkies.
Now it’s back to work for four weeks until Christmas in New
York City!
No comments:
Post a Comment