Merry Christmas!

We're four short days away from Christmas! Are you ready? I'm not. Well, I mostly am. But the mayhem begins today and I can't wait!

At the moment, I am sitting in my classroom. Today is the last day of finals for the semester, and I have seven of my students in my room with me. Zach will be here at 2 to help me move out the larger personal items, like my fridge and desk chair. Then at 2:30 I am headed home to begin the baking frenzy.

Yesterday I made two batches of sugar cookie dough. I get to spend this afternoon rolling them out, cutting them, and baking them because tomorrow I am hosting a cookie decorating party with an old friend from school and two newer friends I've made working at the high school. My parents are also coming into town today, so I am very excited about all of the festivities. Tomorrow we will focus on frosted sugar cookies and chocolate/peanut butter no bake cookies. Saturday I'll keep baking with snickerdoodles, thumbprints, and gingerbread cookies. Then Sunday is Christmas Eve. We'll get to spend the holiday with my parents, and with Zach's grandparents, and I am very excited.

Today is somewhat bittersweet, though. It isn't exactly my last day at the school. We have a teacher workday on the 3rd, and I'll be in the building for it, helping smooth the transition for my replacement. But I basically consider today to be my last day, and I am struggling with the goodbyes. I've said goodbye to most of my students, and today I'll say goodbye to my colleagues who won't be in on the 3rd.

Holiday cheer!

And then we have the New Year, bringing with it so many new challenges, adventures, and changes. Zach and I have our tickets and reservations for the trip in January. How novel it feels that we will be taking a trip just the two of us, that's never actually happened. (Not even a honeymoon.) So even though this will be a working vacation for us, its almost a guilty pleasure leaving the littles home with my parents while the two of us jet off to the other end of the country! A little more than 5 weeks from now and I'll have my first real FAO-journey related update.

In the meantime, I have to turn over my classroom, get through the holidays, and probably meet with our real estate agent once or twice more to get things lined up prior to listing the house. And I'll happily be indulging in too much eggnog, too many cookies, and a bunch of sweet wines in the interim! Merry Christmas, y'all!