School's Out - Time to Play!

As I type this my students are waiting for the buses to leave. They are headed home, not to return to school until Wednesday, January 12. The long awaited Christmas break in finally here and it could not have come soon enough! Being a teacher around Christmas time is awesome in that you receive lots of gifts from students, but terrible in that students are so excited about the upcoming vacation and holiday that they act terribly about 95% of the time. Not really an excellent trade-off and for some reason this week has been particularly brutal. Despite having three half days of school for students to take finals, I honestly feel like I have been in school for a month straight. Staying up until midnight to grade finals probably hasn't helped that at all...

With all the grading and finishing the semester I have not had much time to blog so here are some quick notes on what I have been up to lately.

• Grading finals.
• Watching all of season 1 of Modern Family while pretending to grade.
• Christmas shopping - both in Colombia and online.
• Making plans for while I am home in Minnesota for Christmas.
• Planning last-minute details of my dad and brother's trip to Colombia in January!

When the teacher's bus leaves school today I am headed home to finish packing and get some sleep before my flight to Minnesota tomorrow! Assuming no more giant snow storms strike the Twin Cities in the next 24 hours I will be in Minnesota by 10 PM tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!! Since I didn't go home for Christmas last year I am super excited to celebrate Christmas Minnesota style!!! A few things I am looking forward to especially:

• My mom's Christmas cookies.
• Hanging out with my brothers.
• The Holidazzle parade in downtown Minneapolis.
• Seeing my friend Liz's new apartment in Uptown!
• Possible cross-country skiing play date around Lake Como
• Three (yes, THREE!) Christmas celebrations.
• Friends dinner at my house :)
  
• Having my friend Ilse make me coffee when I visit her at Dunn Bros.
• Shouthouse with my brother Joe.
• A lazy Christmas morning & Christmas day with just my immediate family.
• Catching up with so many friends and family!!
• Celebrating my Dad's birthday (one day late since his birthday is actually today - HI DAD!)
  

AHH cannot wait!!! Happy Christmas vacation everyone! :)