It's Looking More and More.....

..like Christmas at our house.

Today started off a little rough with a mini-meltdown from me.  I don't handle not feeling well at all, especially when I am not sure what is wrong and my mind goes all over the place imagining the worst.  But I recovered.  And the loose ends of decorating began to be tied up.

Christmas cards - While I was sorting through things here and making room for new-to-use pieces of furniture and other items from Ohio and from The Farm, I came upon several boxes of Christmas cards. I asked Gary to remind me NOT to buy any cards this season so I could use the old ones.  There were a few half-full boxes of Lang cards plus a few unopened boxes of other cards I had bought on sale over the years.  The big dresser that we brought from Mom's and put upstairs in Hilary's old room has huge deep drawers, so one of them became my Christmas drawer, full of paper and tags and tissue paper...and boxes of Christmas cards.  Easy to find.  Easy to grab and use.  Last night I printed out the spreadsheet for the card list and started.  I found some return address labels and Gary bought more stamps when he went to the PO this morning, so now most of the cards are in the mail.  No letters this year.  I tried three times to write something that sounded good and newsy and cheery, but it just wasn't working.  Most of our friends are also on FB so they already know that Lynnlee was born in October, that Mom died in May, that we spent most of the summer in Wooster cleaning out the house, that we are traveling more, and that we spend lots of time with the grandkiddos.  So no letter.  No pictures either, except for just a few people, such as the friends of Mom and Dad's who would be interested in knowing about Lynnlee.

Decorations - little things that needed to be done.  Switching the Scentsy warmer from the patriotic to the snowman and adding in the Christmas-y scent.  Adding the red ornaments to the basket of pine cones.  Finding a place for the new lit snowmen that Greta and I found at Green Oak.  Finishing hanging the new stockings from the mantle  Shuffling around the snowmen and Santas that were stacked on the stairs and in boxes and lying on tables. Adding the red flowers to the coffee grinder.  Deorating the coffee tables.  Rearranging the trees on the entertainment center and the different decor on the hutch.  I don't like to omit the most important part of our decor, but there is no spot for the Willow Tree nativity since there is a new device on top of the entertainment center from Direct TV and the hutch needs to have bowls on the top also. Still contemplating this though.  It isn't Christmas without the nativity.

Fabric - the next thing on the agenda is cutting squares for a patchwork quilt.  This is a surprise gift, and I hope I can accomplish getting it together and to Betty in time for quilting.

After some thinking and discussing with Gary and Hilary, I decided to forego the last class meeting and the students writing a reflection paper for a longer discussion board post that they can write from home.  As I said in a post a few days ago, this has been a fun journey with Trine.  But also it is time for it to end.  My heart just isn't in teaching anymore.  If I don't have to make another trip to Logansport, great!  The students will not be upset that they don't have to write the final reflection paper.  They can write a discussion board post and a response at home.  I may enlist Megan to help me read the argument papers and assign a grade to them.  I have learned from past experience that  most students don't really care what they did correctly or what they really goofed on when they look at their final assignment.  All they care about is the grade.  So that is what this group will get.  A grade. Very few comments.  So...another thing I did was change Week 8 on Moodle, send a note to Lori that we wouldn't be meeting on Dec. 13, and felt a huge sigh of relief.  After all  I have been paid.  I did my job.  And I am going to walk away a happy person.  As Gin said, teaching again showed me "that retiring was REALLY the right decision."  And I was paid well to realize that!

Feeling better now.  I have learned something else over the years.  When my mind is not focused on something, and I mean really focused, then it wanders all over the place, my imagination becomes active, and I can plunge into the depths of despair easily.  That is what I was doing this morning.  Plunging into the depths of despair.  I can't do that. 

Onward to being productive on this day at home, for tomorrow becomes busy again!