An Excessivly Lengthy Post About a Perfectly Long Vacation

I could tell that Christmas break was coming to an end when I started having dreams about school.

I woke up in a panic early Wednesday morning after dreaming that I had left my classes with a sub and realized at the end of the day that I hadn't left any sub plans. That dream was a warning shot fired by my subconscious and, goodness gracious, did it get my attention. I spent seven hours that day working on yearbook portrait uploads and to-do lists for my staffers.

The next night, I dreamt that I got in a fender-bender with a school bus. I wonder what that could symbolize, eh? Sometimes I wish my subconscious would be just a tad more subtle.

Then, the night before I drove home to my cute little cowtown, I had another school-centered dream about the kidlets upcoming essay test. But it wasn't a panicky nightmare. In fact, it was actually a fairly pleasant, terror-free dream. That is when I knew I will be ok when Monday rolls around.

It turns out, two weeks is the perfect amount of time for a school vacation: Long enough for an actual BREAK, long enough to rest up, long enough to accomplish things, long enough to see people, and long enough to start missing the kidlets.

The major theme of my Christmas vacation was family.

I spent the whole two weeks with my cute, elderly parents.

I also got to spend time with the niblets both far...

...and near.

As you might have noticed from the photo above, my sweet mother helped finish my presents to the niblets.

The boys got t-shirts...

While the girls got t-shirt dresses. Didn't my mom do an amazing job?

And speaking of my mom, she and the grandbabies got plenty of use out of one of her gifts: an easy bake oven.

 

One day, my mother will figure out how to make treats in her easy bake oven for her grandpuppies. But, since they were still so far away this year, she had to settle for sending them less interactive gifts.

 

Brady seemed to enjoy his snow boots from Grandma...

 

But Mia was a little less sure about them.

Of course, Mia is impressively less sure about most things (Bless her heart).

 

One of Warren's favorite gifts was the fancy hat Brianna sent him. He hasn't taken it off... even when working at his credit union. He seems to think the Napoleon-style topper fits in well with his job as branch overlord, I mean manager.  I'm sure Brianna will be receiving notes from Wo's employees shortly, although I'm not sure how many of them will be of the "Thank You" variety.

The gifts I received were pretty awesome too (although doggie snow boots and an admiral's hat are pretty hard to top).

 

After being recognized as the owner of the deepest TV left in the developed world...

I was gifted with a new flat screen TV, whom I immediately named "Slim." All of the other named inanimate objects in my home gave him a very warm welcome, including my blender, Juan, who is usually fairly wary of newcomers.

 

There was a perfect amount of Doctor Who related items (although still no fez... insert wistful sigh here)

 

The most helpful gifts came from Valerie, who gifted me with two awesome instruments of self defense for district leadership meetings!

 

The vacation ended on a  somber note with the funeral of my Dad's aunt Carma... or at least it would have been a somber note if the family prayer my dad offered wouldn't have caused people to laugh out loud before the "amen." Of course, that is how Carma would have wanted it...

Carma Jean Haws

 

So now it is back to school and the kidlets. We have end of course assessments in a week, and then the direct writing assessment in February and the ISATS in March. There are yearbook deadlines on the horizon and ward conference lessons to prepare. And after two weeks of vacation, I am feel pretty darn ready for all of it.

 

Real life? Bring it on!

 

I can take whatever 2013 is ready to dish out.

 

As long as it contains a side-order of niblets.