Merry Christmas

....and Happy Hannukah, Happy Festivus, and/or a Joyous Season to you all.

Only a couple more days until Christmas. We're looking forward to seeing family and friends.

The kids have a half-day of school today, so I'm home alome wrapping some presents and watching The Grinch, which is the bestest of all the Christmas specials. (Boris Karloff narrating, Chuck Jones directing, and that guy who does Tony Tiger's voice (They're Grrrrreat!") singing the Grinch song. How can it not be the bestest?)

Strudel has been helping me wrap presents, which has reminded me of something I saw once online called "How to Wrap Presents with a Dog," a variation of which I give you here to describe how my gift-wrapping went:

1. Gather presents, boxes, paper, etc. in middle of living room floor.
2. Get tape back from Strudel.
3. Remove scissors from Strudel's mouth.
4. Open box.
5. Take Strudel out of box.
6. Remove tape from Strudel's mouth.
7. Take scissors away from Strudel.
8. Put present in box.
9. Remove present from Strudel's mouth.
10. Put back in box after removing Strudel from box.
11. Take scissors from Strudel & sit on them.
12. Remove Strudel from box & put on lid.
13. Take tape away from Strudel.
14. Unroll paper.
15. Take Strudel OFF box.
16. Cut paper being careful not to cut Strudel's foot or nose that is getting in the way as she "helps".
17. Let Strudel tear paper remaining to be cut.
18. Take Strudel off box.
19. Wrap paper around box.
20. Remove Strudel from box & take wrapping paper from her mouth.
21. Tell Strudel to hold tape so she will stop stealing it.
22. Take scissors away from Strudel.
23. Take tape Strudel is guarding.
24. Quickly tape one spot before taking scissors from Strudel & sitting on them again.
25. Fend off Strudel trying to steal tape & tape another spot.
26. Take bow from Strudel.
27. Go get roll of wrapping paper Strudel ran off with.
28. Take scissors from Strudel, who grabbed them when you got up to chase her and get the paper.
29. Give pen to Strudel to hold so she stops licking your face.
30. Remove Strudel from present & hurriedly slap tape on to hold the paper on.
31. Take now soggy bow from Strudel & tape it on since the sticky stuff on the bow no longer sticks.
32. Take pen Strudel has been guarding, address tag & affix while Strudel tries to eat paper.
33. Grab present before Strudel tears it open & put away.
34. Clean up mess Strudel made playing tug-of-war with roll of wrapping paper.
35. Put away rest of wrapping supplies & tell Strduel what a good helper she is.

Actually, Strudel wasn't that bad today. She only made it to about step 7, and then she got tired of me yelling at her, so she took a couple of sips from the cup of coffee I had set down on the floor, and then jumped up on the couch to take a nap.

Things are settled down now; we're done with grading, pretty much done with shopping, and we can relax for a few days. After the new year starts, the kids are back in school, and we have some plans before our classes start up again: we promised Catherine we'd paint her room (in two shades of pink, but without the mural she has asked for); we have to get our Spring classes planned and materials posted online; we have a few professional development workshops to attend; and, if we're lucky, we'll have a little time to catch up on some reading.

I'm also taking some time to reflect. My one-year diagnosis anniversary is coming up. (Can you belive it's been a whole year?) Some things have changed in a year. I'll write more about that soon enough.

But for now, everyone have a safe and happy Christmas/Hannukah/Festivus.