It's the holidays! Woo!
I have decided that my official non-denomonational, publicly-celebrated holiday this year is "Winter Break! WOO!" because I have been looking forward to this time off since September, and Christmas and Hanukkah are really just nice little accents to my time off. I have until January 3rd, and am looking forward to some pretty hardcore relaxation, awesome times with friends at New Year's, and hopefully some cool presents (not that I should much care about that, but given how mendicant our financial habits have been for the last while, it will be a wonderful treat). We're puttering around the house before heading over to Ryan's folks, where we have the makings for a truly extraordinary cheese platter (Spanish raw sheep's milk aged Manchego, locally sourced goat's milk triple cream chevre, a five-year aged cow's milk Gouda, a smoked gouda round, pepper-crusted dried salami, fig spread, fresh blackberries, and a baked brie with blackberry compote in a loaf of crusty bread) and a relatively extravagant lamb roast planned for later in the afternoon. I hate that I have been so tired as to be unable to be as "festive" as I would like; the whole school was practically on a mission to be jolly and cheerful this week, and all I have wanted to do is nap. Last night, I felt like a huge bump on a log for literally just smiling and sitting around rather than being all perky and holiday-tastic. I feel pretty entitled to be lazy, what with all that "educating and influencing young minds" that I've been doing. I feel like I pretty much phoned in the last week of school, but whatever; the kids were completely mentally checked-out after Thanksgiving anyhow, and we had fun talking about music and gender roles and relationships. I swear, everything (even the two episodes of "Family Guy" we watched on the last day before break - seriously!) has been relevant in some way. Teaching incredibly modern fiction kicks ass; I feel like the connections we can make are so relevant! In any case, I'm off to eat fancy cheeses and open presents! Happy whatever you're celebrating!