Santa Claus

You may wonder why I haven't been posting so much since school is out and clearly I should be just be twirling around in my holly decorated Christmas apron eating warm cookies right out of the oven. Right?????

Tell that to the tenure committee. I've been working my booty off this month. I'm turning in a manuscript tomorrow and have a book chapter due by the end of the year. Then I have 3 papers due for a conference in January, two of which I haven't even started yet.

HA! HA! HA!

Yes, I'm maniacally shouting out HA! HA! HA! instead of HO! HO! HO! (like the transition?)

Fortunately, my life as Scrooge is not affecting (much) my own little star of Bethlehem. He is very excited about Christmas this year and has taken to walking around the house saying "Santa is coming to MY house!" (Everything is emphasized with a strong statement of MY! When I pick him up at daycare he turns to the rest of the class and emphatically says MY Mommy!!)

But back to Santa. Last night, we explained to him how we were going to leave some cookies and milk so Santa could have a snack while he was would be working so hard on Christmas eve. You could see the little cogs turning in his head as he processes this information. It's a LOT OF FUN to lie to your children and get them to believe in it!

Cookies and milk, however, have NOTHING on seeing the real (a real?) Santa come by school this week. Of course, his first reaction was to put his head down in the lap of his favorite care giver and sob. But then he recovered enough to be the only child in his class to go sit on Santa's lap and get his present. I choose to think of this as an act of courage and not of greed. Conor doesn't quite get the whole present thing still but he has been very obsessed with Santa's general being. (And can I just add a BIG thank you to the volunteers who provided this year's amazing gifts to the children. Wow.) So yeah. I'll get to see the picture of Conor and Santa this afternoon when I go pick him up. It's got to be pretty adorable.

Ok. Back to work. I'm getting cranky.

Soon, I must tell you on my new thoughts of IVF, something I had ruled out before, but now has surprisingly started to sound appealing. First, though, I must discuss this with my husband. Details.....