Christmas break has begun!

Thursday was the kids' last day of school and I had BIG plans to sleep in Friday morning. I made it to 6:58--which is late for me, but not exactly the hour I had in mind. I tried again today and was up even earlier. Hmmmm...I think my internal clock needs to be re-set, and I think that 18 days off is enough time to sufficiently readjust, don't you?

I went to the school board meeting on Thursday night and it is official: Our elementary school is closing. The good news is that all of those students are being relocated together to one of the middle schools that is being reconfigured as an elementary. My middle-schoolers aren't too affected by it. Their school will remain open and will become a 7th/8th grade campus. It wasn't an easy decision for the board and all of their options had cons, but I'm hopeful that our community will support their decision and move forward in a positive direction.

I'm very thankful that a decision was made about our school so I can stop thinking/worrying about this. Sadly, it has consumed a lot of mental space over the last few weeks.

Moving on.

I've been finished with my shopping for awhile, and I mailed my Christmas cards earlier than I ever have, but I haven't baked ONE SINGLE treat unless you count a triple batch of Chex mix. I keep telling myself it's because I want the kids to help me, but who am I kidding? I don't love baking with my kids. I do it because my kids love it and because "that's what good moms do" (said tongue in cheek) but I honestly don't enjoy having every individual nerve in my body challenged at one time.

We WILL be doing some baking this week/weekend though. I went to Walmart last weekend (took me 35 minutes to check out with my groceries last Sunday afternoon--bah humbug!) and I got the ingredients for all our traditional Christmas goodies.

Do you give food gifts? I rarely do. I don't mind receiving them, but I usually talk myself out of giving platters of cookies and candy because I figure that people are sick of "one more platter".

Am I weird? (Wait, don't answer that).

Since I'm rambling about Christmas stuff (in a most unorganized fashion) I must mention how wonderful my house smells since I bought this. We never buy a real tree but you wouldn't know that if you walked in my house and took a whiff. Mmmmmm....

I was telling John the other day that this Christmas has felt really spacious to me. I've given myself and my family the gift of time by being protective of our outside commitments this month. It has been very freeing and like I said, it has felt spacious.

Even our budget has felt spacious this year, despite having to replace the transmission in the car we just acquired. Ugh. We're going to pick it up from the mechanic in a little while. Merry Christmas, honey.

Being able to stay at home for Christmas and not travel has also been a spacious gift. You guys who travel know how hard it is to get all the loose ends tied up in order to leave during an extra busy time of year! My kids are happiest when they're at home on Christmas morning, and I love the years that we get to enjoy that.

I could ramble on and on...but the coffee is calling and so are the Italian cookies that Christen gave to me at Bunco last night. Chow, er, I mean Ciao.