holiday photo redux

Life is so tough sometimes.

You know, you only get two and a half weeks paid Christmas vacation, and don't they realize that three weeks are really necessary to get into the holiday season? Plus, the last week of school is really just fluff anyway.

The sea of days go by with endless amounts of eating, drinking and being, in general, quite merry. You're in a world of flying calendar pages, and when you pause for a brief moment to take note of the date, you realize you haven't the slightest clue. It could be Tuesday, but it could also be...Sunday? Who knows.

Then all of the sudden your measly two and a half weeks are up, and you have to get up at 8:30 a.m. to go back into work for a whopping 3 hours Monday morning. WHY is so much expected of you?? And you won't even start to think about the second half of the day, which will be equally grueling. You're going to treat yourself to breakfast in the cafe, because, well, why not?

I'm sorry to say it, but vacation is over kids. Here's the redux in photos.

Nothing like taking a nice walk in Madrid during the holidays. Once again, sorry about the stamp.

I jokingly complained above about the last week of school being all fluff. This is true as far as dictation and long division go, but it's really quite educational. The kids spend all week practicing their two carols, and then of course there's the social aspect of it. The party is huge (in the eyes of a kid): gifts galore (the three kings, of course, are present), chocolate y churros, costumes, wild running through the halls...one of the only things some kids will remember of the second grade. Anyyyyway, everyone in the school dressed up as Santa Claus or Mrs. Claus, which was a pretty funny sight. I have tons of pictures, but here is just one corner of the sea of little Santa Monsters, my second graders.

The publishers of our school textbooks let us use a sweaty costume for one hour as it toured around Madrid schools all day. This is Poopi, a character in our textbooks. He is a curious little alien from the Milky Way. Talk about exciting.

Old friends, new friends, nice to be together at Christmas. The party was a really fun time, I find myself more and more inclined to hostessing each day.

And that's it for now, and maybe forever because I CAN'T FIND MY FREAKING CAMERA A@$%RT@$T%Y$%WFKR