Christmas recap

Christmas was actually really nice this year. Of course, it was difficult without Momma or Daddy, but the rest of the family anticipated this and was constantly supportive and generous.

The biggest thing I'm grateful for right now is that unlike some of you poor slobs, I'm still on Christmas vacation for another 2 workdays and a weekend before facing the daily grind again. (Although I realize that there are a great many of you who are on the same countdown...how is it that teaching has captured so many of us? Perhaps it is the schedule...)

I was planning to leave the tree up until after New Year's, but my furry girls have taken a new and sudden fascination with it that they didn't have for the first 4 or 5 days it was up and are now trying to find ways to climb the damn thing. I found Christmas ornaments that had been catnapped into the kitchen, bathroom and hall closet. At this point, I believe I'm going to cut my losses (there are at least 4 ornament casualties that I know of so far) and put everything away.

I also think that despite an earlier decision not to send holiday cards, I have changed my mind and will spend part of today reconnecting with friends around the country. At first, I hadn't figured out how to send a letter with happy greetings and still acknowledge that in a lot of ways, this year sucked hard core. I still don't know how that's going to come out, but I'm going to give it a try anyhow.

New Year's is approaching rapidly and I am looking forward to a much better year. Teaching is getting better, I am learning how to balance my school and university responsibilities, and it appears that there may finally be romance on the horizon.