A Week Undefined

The week between Christmas and New Year is like no other week of the year. After the whirlwind of getting ready for Christmas and the day itself is over it becomes a week undefined when you really do have trouble knowing what day it is. It takes a day or so after Christmas to realize that I am on vacation from school and should take advantage of the time to do all the things I never have time for when school is in session. Then comes the panic that the week is flying and soon I will be returning to school without having done all (or any) of the things I had been thinking of. This year I decided to try and just enjoy the time. I took the day after Christmas to just relax. I worked on a new puzzle I received as a gift from my daughter (picture below) and did some reading. The next day I had a lunch date with a friend that I have not seen since the school year began. It always so nice to catch up as we enjoy so many of the same things.
One book I was able to finally get to this week was The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. It is a young adult book that has been receiving quite a bit of press. It received the 2018 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Written in verse it is Acevedo's first novel. Xiomara is fifteen and, faced with more than her share of teenage angst including first love and an overly strict family life, she is trying to navigate her life through her poetry. It is beautifully written and I already have a couple of students in mind to share it with when we get back to school next week.
Two days ago we took a ride to view the beautiful Christmas light display at The National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro, MA. Their Festival of Lights display really is amazing. I hadn't been to it in a number of years. Our unseasonal warm(ish) New England weather made it even more enjoyable to walk around and enjoy the lights.
The week has also included lots of eating. Tomorrow I will be back at WW to try to get back on track eating healthy to at least start the new year. Probably should try to get back to the gym sometime soon too. Although I've been pretty good about attending the WW meetings since I reached goal in November, the gym has been a distant memory. Might as well get a jump on the hoards of people who will be flocking back to both in early January.

My "Nevertheless, She Persisted" puzzle.

Christmas 2018 - A Blog is Born

Yesterday, I decided to start a blog. I have no idea why but it may have been because I had arrived early to Christmas mass, still a habit that stems from the memory of large Christmas mass crowds of years past, and had ample time to park, enter, sit and think. Being Christmas, and being ready for the onslaught of family expected at my house in the afternoon, I had time to think about all the things I am grateful for. I often write emails to people in my head that (probably fortunately) never get sent and I started to feel that my thoughts were like an email to myself. Or, maybe a blog post. And it suddenly popped into my head that I would start a blog. A blog would be a way to publish my thoughts but, unlike an email, edit or delete if necessary. A blog would be a chance to tell myself (and anyone else who may care to read) about all the things I am grateful for. I often think about how grateful I am to have received an education that has allowed me to make a couple of career changes leading finally to where I needed to be all along - a high school library teacher. Along that vein I am grateful to have had parents that supported this education even when I picked a college that may have been a little more liberal than they would have preferred but that helped shape me to be the person I am today. It was the right choice and I am grateful that they allowed me to make it. So this blog will include thoughts about being grateful for many different things. It may include thoughts about family, friends, pets, books, quilting or travel and often it will include musings about my interactions with my high school students who never cease to amaze me and continually remind me of how grateful I am for everyone and everything in my life that has led me to this point. For now I am grateful that Christmas 2018 was a wonderful day filled with good food and time with family. Though it was too busy to take pictures during the day here are a couple from the night before. Christmas Eve is always a peaceful night for me.