I know other people don't get two weeks off at Christmas. Thanks for all that you do, but I am going to enjoy my two weeks.

Let me start by saying that I love my class this year, and that they are great kids. I love my job and I love my school.

Be that as it may...

I was sooooooo ready for Winter Break!

I think I was caught off guard becauase the kids did so well leading up to Halloween and Thanksgiving and I thought having fun doing Christmas things would be easy for us.

Wrong.

I forgot that Christmas is an entirely different beast that involves presents. It comes last in a succession of fun holiday activities that start October 1st. Parents forget normal routines because of family visits, etc., so no one has had any sleep for weeks. Also, fun activities for Halloween involve reading books and coloring. For Thanksgiving they involve cutting vegetables and eating soup. For Christmas, they involve:

• making gingerbread cookies (on their own) and building up the anticipation for them possibly running away.
• going to pick up the cookies the next day from the school kitchen and they are gone. Chasing them through the whole school ensues. (If you can't visualize this, imagine trying to lead 32 cats, dogs, emus and gerbils through a maze of corn where things jump out at you...)
• Making Christmas cards for their parents that involves writing (which they can't do), folding (which they can't do) and gluing (which ends up everywhere). Then, in a brilliant move, I decide to add glitter to the equation.
• Making Christmas gifts for their parents which involves one million beans (literally, I am not kidding) of all shapes, sizes and colors. Again, in another brilliant move, the project includes more glue and glitter.
• Mrs. Melton (the principal) coming to read The Polar Express to us. When I saw her frazzled and flustered face at the end, I said "Welcome to Kindergarten. Congratulations, you survived 15 minutes."
• wrapping and organizing their Christmas gifts to their parents, plus my gifts to my parent helpers, my gifts to the students and gifts to my coworkers.
• practicing for our performance. We sing several of Raffi's classic Christmas songs, which they have fun with. The stress of the performance comes from trying to get them understand that you can't stand on your head, lift up your shirt, pick your nose, punch your neighbor or ask to go to the bathroom when all of the parents are watching us and we are being recorded by a professional videographer who will be selling DVDs.
• having a party where they make a reindeer sandwich, frost a cookie and make a hat.
• Surviving to the actual last day of school, which included a flag assembly (the entire school gathers around the basketball court for announcements and celebrations. Normally they do pretty well. This day, they did not stop talking the entire time, and did not even notice when the principal herself was pointing them out as being loud.), playing with our 4th grade buddies, an extra long recess and our performance in front of almost 200 people(a fist fight almost broke out, and a kid almost threw up). The day wasn't even over yet, we still had lunch, and 45 minutes to fill after.

That still only covers the BIG things we did over those 3 weeks! We still had to do math and writing, carpet time, go to the library and computer lab and do centers.

To put it mildly, the kids had a very hard time concentrating. Let's just say that there was an increase in undesirable behaviors and a decrease in overall productivity. (To put a finer point on it, Mrs. Bryson went home and collapsed every night.)

So yes, I have put my time in and plan to enjoy these 2 weeks off.

Strangely enough, though, I miss the kids. I wonder what they are doing right now. Even when I remember the kid throwing up, the kid who fought with everyone the whole month of December, the kid who couldn't stop yelling at me, the kid who refused to eat lunch, and the kids who were totally lost in all the activities of the month, I think of other things. I think of how proud they were of their presents to their parents. I think of how they asked to do a venn diagram to compare the Gingerbread Boy and The Gingerbread Girl (they really did!), how one student was proud of an answer he gave and said "Yes! I was correct!" I think of getting millions of hugs and "I love you's" 10 times a day. How they all say "I predict" instead of "I think/guess" becauase I taught them that. How they can all tell you the difference between fiction and non-fiction, again, because I taught them that. I am certain that at least a handful of them miss me right now and have begged to come back to school. When it is hard for me to think of these things, I remind myself that they are 5, that this world is new and exciting, and that I represent the entrance to all of these new and exciting things. I think I can deal with a little hyperactivity if it means I am helping them have experiences and make memories.

Just not throw up, thanks.