Three days

It's getting to me and the kids - Christmasitis. I'm playing Christmas music at school and spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out how to fold paper to make snowflakes. Tomorrow I will give up and just have us color some. We are all counting down the days until vacation. Me in my head, them on their papers and in their handbooks in big colored letters. And they have this weird obsession with wearing gloves all the time. Those silly little 99 cent gloves that really protect your hands against nothing (well in Michigan at least, here there's nothing to protect against really). I threw a pair in the trash today that I found lying in my room. When the owner came looking for them I denied knowing anything and did not feel bad about it.
Today I had my kids journal about what they'd like for Christmas that couldn't be bought with money. Some had a difficult time. Others surprised me with their thoughts. One girl wants a job for her grandpa because he's angry he can't find one. Another wants time with an uncle who died a few years back. Others want world peace and Osama bin Laden captured. Some want no one to be hungry on Christmas day others want boy/girlfriends and people who've moved away to come back. One wants to fly into outer space (I didn't have the heart to tell him you can now buy that). Another wants her mom and dad back together for good. One wants a mom off drugs. One wanted the mall. These are my kids and I love them. Even when they won't stop talking.
Sometimes they show such maturity. Today I explained that a classmate has pnemonia and a collapsed lung and will be hospitalized all week and that her dad would love a few visitors for her. Some kids were joking about it but a few others shushed them and reminded them this was serious. And that pnemonia was a spelling work last week. That's making learning relevant in my book!
And to top off this crazy Christmas week (the Christmas music still drifts through the halls) we are having a slime-the-teacher assembly on Friday yet I doubt my kids will shell out the money to move me to the top of the list (thank goodness) and we're supposed to decorate our doors for a contest and bring in canned goods and change for the veterans. And tomorrow is the staff potluck and white elephant exchange. Oh yeah, and we're supposed to be teaching them something this week.
Three days, I only need to make it three more days!