Brain Vacation

Happy new year!

Welcome to 2014.

You may have noticed that my last post was in October. And you may have also noticed that it's been a while (let's just say ten weeks).

I know that some of you have noticed (hi, Cuff!) and I must apologize. The semester chugged on and I meant to post something around mid-term, and then around Thanksgiving, and then--for sure--over the winter break. But during the break I sort of shut off my brain and subsisted only on holiday food (there were a whole hell of a lot of cookies up in here), Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes on DVD (I made it 3/4 through season six--just before Willow gets really, really [really] bad), and Christmas gift wrapping (I used approximately 378 little pieces of Scotch tape).

But I am ready to emerge. And to warm up, I wanted to share with you a quick review of what our past couple of months have looked like.

My friend Lisa took me along with her friends to a painting party at the local pub. Everyone gets an easel, paints and brushes, step-by-step instructions to paint (we painted a snowman), and a server to get you glasses of wine or bottles of beer. It's pretty terrific.  

Lisa on the right and some of her painting pals across the table

I begin with an outline

Some blue sky

Some color

A nose

He looks surprised, doesn't he?

That's better

Stripes

Et, voila! A snowman!

The girls' almost finished products

A line of snowmen. All so similar, but unique, just like each one of us. (awwwww)

That got the holiday season off to a very nice start. I still had to grade my students' final assignments, but it was things like this that made them all fun to look through:

In case you can't tell, that's me.

One of my exceptional creative writing students turned in her final journal and drew a little portrait of me with her reflection. It's, like, the best thing ever.

I partied a little with my English department colleagues:

And yes, we wore the paper crowns from the Christmas crackers

We are such a good looking department!

And Missy (left in the maroon dress) treated us to some terrific tunes from the Dickens Carolers.

I was finally done grading and started to look for holiday decorations. We never got farther than wreaths and a stocking for Roo over the mantle, but I did find Trevor and my likenesses at the craft store:

Me (the teacher) and Trevor (I guess, king of Ireland?). We are really a cute couple.

I got to attend Bosco's Christmas pageant and see his school, which was so much fun in a lots-of-children and thank-goodness-I'm-just-the-aunt kind of way.

Bosco waits for instructions on the wall (and yes, there might be a finger up his nose but who cares?!)

Bo gets some bells

And they sing! (this is them at their most organized)

Some angels on the sidelines

I'll smile and look cute when you're not looking at the camera, okay?

And then when you're smiling at the camera, I'll eat my fingers. Good plan.

This is my classroom!

There followed a lot of shopping, which I enjoyed, and then wrapping, which I also, strangely, enjoyed. And then Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. I realized now that we didn't take very many pictures.

But, what followed Christmas was five days of Trevor off work, so there was a lot a lot of cozy home behavior.

I made some lumpy but delicious pancakes.

We made Roo wear these reindeer antlers and she hated them.

 

T. made a lot of fires and we did a lot of lounging around next to them.

Hello.

I finally finished Roo's sweater. She is not a fan of it.

But she looks so cute, doesn't she?

And I did a lot of knitting. And drinking tea. And eating cookies, which are not pictured because I ate them all before taking this picture.

You may have noticed that Roo had a shaved patch on her arm--sure mark of a doggie IV. That's because on December 20 she got into all of the Christmas chocolate we had on the kitchen counter and we had to take her to the emergency vet. She got her stomach pumped and spent the night (the vet said she didn't sleep at all, but stayed up all night watching everyone). She thought it was an adventure. Trevor and I thought it was really scary. So, everyone wins for the holidays.

And now, I have my first class of the semester in about 90 minutes. So, I should probably shower up and get out of the house. So, bye.