*For me, gifts are best (given or received) when the gift reflects something about the relationship between the people involved, or is based around some small detail that shows how much the gift giver has been paying attention. The gift this year that I enjoyed receiving the most was from one of my students. One girl who pays attention went home and told her mother what she wanted to give me, and I'm sure her mother at first thought she was crazy, but knowing the way her daughter thinks probably got a good laugh from it. She gave me a six-pack of single serving cans of V8 juice, the same kind she sees me drinking every day during snack time at school. I am saving all six cans until after break and enjoying them in the first week back.
*Most of the cards I receive as a teacher are the kind that say "teacher" on the front, and then have the kid's name signed on the inside, and that's it. But sometimes you get a message in one that surprises you. I had that happen this year when I saw the note: "Thank you for taking care of our daughter." That really knocked the wind out of me. It gets too easy in the day-to-day routine of school to take for granted how important it is for me to do my job as perfectly as I can. Something like that can remind you exactly what the stakes are.
*Mass on Christmas Eve. Packed, shoulder to shoulder with complete strangers, cold and stuffy and sweaty all at once, wishing the guy sitting behind me didn't carry that heavy death-stink of cigarettes on his jacket. But just as I was feeling thankful for it to almost be over, that anonymous little strawberry-blond head four rows up that kept turning around finally caught my eye; one of my girls, all dressed up for the holiday and barely recognizable. I smiled at her and she smiled back, and she was able to sit still for the rest of the time. Made my night to see her there.
*I made Christmas music a big part of my holiday this year; after all, that genre makes up 422 songs on the iPod and only has relevance for about five weeks of the year. I also kept my car radio on the two all-day Christmas music stations in the Cities, and luckily never had to hear horribly manipulative "Christmas Shoes" song at all, and Paul McCartney's marijuana-tinged excuse for a Christmas song only once. In an ironic manner, one of my favorite Christmas music moments of the season has to be Jose Feliciano singing "I want to wish you a Merry Christmas / From the bottom... of my heart / And from Taco John's!"
*I was grateful to see AMC was playing 24 hours of "Scrooged" on Christmas Day. I'm sorry, but "A Christmas Story" has really reached the point of cliché that only "It's a Wonderful Life" had the distinction of achieving before.
*My last day at school before break was in no way a landmark last day, but things all went very well and it was completely enjoyable. The best part was knowing I was able to walk away from school without any work to take care of during vacation, and knowing I had two days of plans in place waiting for my return. I did miss out on seeing someone coming back to visit me -- and only by an infuriatingly small number of minutes, it turns out. But I know we'll catch up another time, and I received a nice little text message greeting on Christmas day instead, which made me smile.
*I still have one more family holiday celebration to attend, the third of three this year, and I'm looking forward to it. All of my holiday this year has helped me appreciate things. I have a secure life, and a vitally important job that owns me which I love. The people close to me, the ones who've somehow found a way past my defenses, bring goodness into my life -- a level of which I'm not always sure I'm worthy of receiving but happily accept all the same. My dog is still with me, resting peacefully at my feet right now. As I sit typing this, I'm healthier than I've probably been at any given point in the past fifteen years, and just as I begin to write my closing sentences, Bruce Springsteen's version of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town," truly the only necessary contemporary take on any Christmas song, begins playing on the radio.
Things could be worse.
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