PARTY!

London's last day of school before Christmas break was Friday!! I cannot tell you how excited I am about this. First off, I love having London home. I miss her during the day. She is my little helper, my non-stop talker, Lily's play mate, and my little shadow. Second, I don't think I can make another school lunch. Ever. Again. Making those lunches every day is a complete beating. Third, we don't have to get up early! No more 6am mornings for me! So, London had a Christmas party last Friday. I love that she belongs in a school district where they call the parties, "Christmas" parties. I am so proud of that. Back in my teaching days, we dared not say the word Christmas. We called it winter break, and winter parties, or even snowman parties. But never ever say Christmas. It was frowned upon. I did sneak it in though any way I could.
Anyway, Lily and I headed up to London's class to help her celebrate. There were a ton of parents there. We had to park about 2 blocks away. We parked in front of a random house and Lily kept asking me where in the world were we going? We hiked our way to school and when we walked in, there stood a huge Christmas tree! (I still can't believe this is allowed!) The party had already started. There were about 4 groups of 5 kids sitting in circles. They passed around a wrapped present and when the Christmas music stopped, that child got to open it. The present was wrapped 5 times so everyone got a chance to unwrap it!

Once the present was completely unwrapped, the kids got to open the box and there were candy canes for each one! (I couldn't even pass out candy canes to my students!!) Then we got to make a Christmas ornament!

And finally, they got to decorate a sugar cookie!

It was a fun little party! She said goodbye to all her friends. They told each other, "See ya next year" and then bust out laughing. They think this is so so funny. We hugged Ms. D and headed home!

On the way out, the principal and vice principal where waving bye and telling us to have a Merry Christmas. I don't know how long all this Christmas stuff will last in our public school but for now I'm taking it all in and loving it!