The Day After Christmas

It's funny what Christmas becomes as we get older...

I'm sitting here on the day after Christmas rifling through different emotions.  As I look back on yesterday, I am so happy.  Everyone loved their presents that I gave them.  I did not win the Christmas pickle tradition, but am happy that Chantal was victorious.  Christmas Eve Eve brought many friends to us that made me smile.  The food was delicious, and the happiness that my family got from the beautiful meal my mom put together was overwhelming.  I am, as always, blown away by the amazing gifts my friends and family thought of to give me.  And nothing beats those moments when Fiancé would look at me and pull me in for a hug or a kiss, and all I could feel in those were love and joy.  

But now it's the day after Christmas.  The lights lose a bit of their sparkle.  The apartment looks like a tornado ran through it between the craziness leading up to Christmas, and the returning back home with almost as much stuff as we left with.  There is a ton of delicious food in the house- most of which I will feel guilty for eating in the next few days.  I miss having 2 fluffy puppies always getting in my face for rubs or playtime.  There's just a general feeling that this season went by too fast, and that somehow I didn't enjoy it enough in the moment.  

The good thing is that I still have a week of vacation.  Today is jam packed with friends and stuff to do.  Tomorrow we will see Nicks family again.  There is wedding planning to do, a day of reading on the couch, and figuring out New Years Eve.  Now I'm sitting here wondering if I will get time to relax...  

The moments that made me happiest were the simple ones.  Seeing my mom's face as we sat down for dinner and how good the meal was.  My sister fist-bumping me for "winning at Christmas".  My dads smile and laugh when he opened up the game I got for him and my mother.  Nick pulling me in for a hug. Texts from my friend Jess about her narwhal slippers, and texts from my friend Billy about his Christmas.  It wasn't the big crazy moments.  It was the small simple ones.  It was the feelings of contentment, and being with the people who matter.  

So overall, I guess after writing it out,  I'm feeling extremely happy about Christmas.  There is a small lingering sadness that it's over, but otherwise I am excited to get my vacation going!  

What was your favorite part of Christmas?   

Oh Christmas Tree...

Ok I'm BACK!  I kind of let this go the wayside from Thanksgiving onward.  It's a busy time of year for the dance studio as we approach our "winter break."  Basically that means we are scrambling to finish dances, clean the ones we've already choreographed, take time to try on costumes that have come in, keep the rec kids interested and involved, and try to remain calm as the Christmas crazies kick in.  There are extra rehearsals, more time spent listening to music for recitals, and making sure everything is set and we're all in good places before we have 2 weeks off.  Add in my personal life of Christmasy events, Christmas shopping, Christmas cards, a minor cold, trying to keep the apartment from looking like a tornado has ripped through it, and keeping Nick and I fed with healthier options than take out, my life has been a little busy!  

I am back now, though, and I'm hoping to keep up better with this, particularly since I figured out how to write an entry from my phone!  Yay technology!  

So, it's Throwback Thursday!  Yay!  What keeps popping up on my Facebook is Christmas trees, and in my "On This Day" section, various Christmas trees of yore keep popping up as well.  So I'm going to share one of my FAVORITE tree pictures.  

This is from when I lived with my darling  Cj.  That is my lovely little tree.  Hanging from the star is Jack Skellington (which was Cj's idea, and I now try to do every year). Behind the tree is David Tenant.  No, not the real one, though, that would be amazing. It's a cardboard cut out of him as the tenth doctor in Doctor Who.  Wrapped around him is a sparkly sash that Cj had procured on a trip to Vega.  One of us put the Santa hat on him.  Whether it was me, Cj or Fiancé, I cannot recall.  That was probably one of my favorite years decorating the tree.  I know I had come home from work and began pulling out the decorations.  I believe eggnog was involved, Christmas music, and lots of laughter.  I also have a strong memory of being on the floor by the tree as Cj read through a book I got my sister that was all about different ailments and what deadly disease it could be (it'd be funnier and less horrifying if you knew my sister the hypochondriac).  I don't remember specifically if this memory was on the same day as the decorating, but it might have been.  

The thing of it is, this is one of my favorite trees because of the love and laughter that went with it.  Not to say that I don't have that now, but there was something about that time period in that apartment. It was really special and something that I will always treasure. 

So...I'm hoping to stay on top of all this in a better fashion, and the blog will begin to breathe life again.  Hopefully someone will eventually read this!  

What was your favorite Christmas tree memory? 

#Kindness4Colleen

Normally today would be Throwback Thursday, but I think I need to take a little time to reflect.

2 years ago today something horrible happened.  In my hometown, in my old high school, a teacher was murdered in cold blood by a student.  I remember finding out, calling Nick, and just sobbing into the phone.  I wanted nothing more than to run to the high school just to make sure that everyone I knew was okay.

I have many students who were in the school that day, and are still in that school now.  There are those who have graduated and moved on, and there are those who are friends with students at the school.  This tragedy has changed them.  Perhaps they are a little less naive, perhaps a little more jaded.  Innocence was taken from some of them, and that feeling of safety that Danvers always had was rocked.  In contrast, I am proud of these students.  If only for one day a year, they remember to take something so tragic, and turn it into something good.

For every dark cloud, there is a silver lining.  There is a movement started by Colleen Ritzer's best friend called #Kindness4Colleen.  Basically, people are asked to do random acts of kindness in her honor.  I am incredibly proud of how many students are participating.  It is so tough as a teacher to watch your students go through an event like this- between the emotions, the confusion, the pain.  To watch them rise above that and do good in the world is an amazing thing.

I only hope that these students inspire the adults in their lives to act with kindness as well.  I find myself on certain days getting caught up in unnecessary stress, and then perhaps not acting as kindly as I could.   However, I have preached for a long time to my students about practicing kindness in my classroom, and I hope that resonates with some of them.

Stand up.  Practice Kindness.  Carry love in your heart.  There is so much good in the world if you look for it, and I hope my students are reminded of that every day.