A quieter Christmas

It's definitely going to be  a quieter Christmas this year, both in my little house, and in my larger family group.

This is the year that most everyone is going to 'the other side' for Christmas - the spouse's family.  I am honestly not sure who is even going to be around.

DS1 is flying in after midnight on the 17th/18th and will be home for one week. DS2 is flying out to BC to visit his uncle, and make some  connections with folk in the resource and environmental law world. His uncle used to work with the federal government for fisheries and can introduce DS to a few of them and get a tour of operations.  DH flies out on the 16th and DS on the 18th. (so two trips into the city that day for me to get kids to and from the airport)

The trip is DH and DS2's Christmas gifts from me so there won't really be much beyond stockings for them to open. DS1 bought his Christmas gift down in the US on Black Friday, after calling me first to see if it was ok. So he has his gift.  Something about not having pressies to open makes me a little blue.

DS2 and DH will be home after midnight on Christmas Eve. DS1 will be celebrating at his girlfriends that night as they go to mass and do their presents. So it will be a solo Christmas eve for me.

I didn't buy a tree this year. I dug out the little three foot artificial mom got me a few years ago and it will go up on a corner table in the living room.

I need to snap out of my blues. I have a lot... a LOT to be grateful for and a lot of folk out there are having a tough Christmas.

Off to the school I go to do another round of marking and planning.   Have a great Sunday everyone.

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It was a productive day. I got everything ready at school for the door decorating contest tomorrow. The kids just need to cut and assemble and get creative. I chose for our door theme the book "The Mitten Tree".

 

It's a great story of an older woman who watches the kids board the bus each day and spies a young man without mittens. She knits him some and leaves them in the tree by the bus stop. He is so excited to find them the next morning. Seeing that joy, she continues to knit and leave mittens until she runs out of yarn, her joy building from the joy she sees in the kids. She comes home one day to find a basket of yarn on her doorstep ; a gift from the children she made so happy.

 

I hit Walmart, mostly with blinders on, so I wouldn't buy anything I wasn't going there for. It was tough.. I went to do four pictures at the photo center and get one frame. One of the pics and the frame is for my mom and dad for Christmas. It's of my boys. It's all she wanted. Two others I put in frames I have had at home sitting here, waiting, for at least 6 years. DH was born in a house with bare walls and can't stand things up. Almost like each nail is driven right into his brain or something. I persuaded him, with great difficulty, to finally let me put up pics of the kids, and one lovely 'family ' saying wall décor my sister gave me about 3 years ago. It feels SO good to have something on that wall.

 

I decorated the wee little tree and it stands on a corner table now. I found some nice, tiny ornaments, in the ornament box, so I didn't have to buy any to scale. I must have put it up last time with nothing on it. sad lol

 

My mom had given me a lovely clock for my birthday in the fall, and I swapped it out for the very plain one in the kitchen.

 

As penance for his nail driving marathon (10 min), I sat and watched some Gold mining show with DH. They all seem the same to me.

 

I am anxious for the week ahead, mostly because no matter what I do, I can't stay caught up with the marking and the planning. When everything is differentiated, there  are often five or six different assignments for each subject happening every day. Gets a bit overwhelming. I spent four hours there today, and about five yesterday and I barely feel like I made a dent. I have some very weak kids in my class and at least three who can't read beyond a grade 1 level. It makes it super tough.

 

I am curled up now with my two kitties and a glass of red and working on appreciating all the little things I have.