that's the spirit.

the other day my associate teacher mentioned that she felt that the 'magic' of christmas has become overshadowed with last minute shopping sprees, busy social calendars and stress. i realized that i couldn't remember the last time that i had enjoyed the preparations for christmas. particularly during my undergrad, exams always took priority over the holiday cheer. for the past five years, i have woken up after exams and realized that i had four days left until christmas! i missed walks in the snow, decorating the tree, shopping without the rush and having the time to actually enjoy the season. christmas passed in the blink of an eye.

working in a school was the first thing that changed it all for me this year. it is impossible NOT to get into the spirit of christmas when kids start talking about santa on december first. their eyes light up when we read holiday stories (we now read stories about hanukkah, christmas, kwanzaa etc), and they make it impossible to have any semblance of learning with their minds wandering to visions of sugar plum fairies and new ipods. teachers started wearing classic "teacher" sweaters with cabins, reindeer and mistletoe embroidered across their front. note: in case you haven't already guessed, i will never be caught dead in a "teacher" sweater. i can't even bring myself to wear holiday earings. they won't match my power suits!

the icing on the christmas cake was this weekend. my whole family was home and we spent friday night decorating the tree and listening to classic holiday cd's. saturday was present wrapping (with christmas movies on, of course) and sunday was baking and christmas cards. for the first time in my short life, i am almost ready for christmas and the day is still a week away! i now have SEVEN full days to soak up the magic of this time of year.

this evening i attended a christmas party a friend's house. the decorations, the conversation, the food -- everything was planned to put us in the christmas mood. driving home, i couldn't remember the last time i had felt this happy and appreciative about a holiday.

i can't wait to wake up tomorrow morning and try to focus on my job. ooops. in the midst of all this christmas spirit, i have kind of forgotten about my job. maybe the kids will be too excited to notice.