a moratorium on the "christmas ban"....all in the name of CARDS.

I have a serious ban on all things Christmas until after Thanksgiving has passed.

My students ask if we can listen to Christmas music. My response: “absolutely not, give Thanksgiving a chance.”

I walk through the aisles and aisles of Christmas merchandise and leave the store saddened and disappointed with their single shelf of Thanksgiving adornments. You want to sell Christmas early FINE, but give Thanksgiving a chance.

I sit here on the eve of Thanksgiving, excited for the day and the feast that is waiting tomorrow, but perhaps even more excited for the day that that is waiting the day AFTER tomorrow. The day my Christmas gets to burst forth, Christmas music, Christmas socks, Christmas cookies, Christmas decorations, and one of this year’s most exciting features, Christmas cards.

Why do Christmas cards bring me more excited than normal this year? Because this year Shutterfly is offering Christmas cheer to bloggers in the form of cards.

Normally I spend hours if not days hunched over a craft table creating cards….which is why my handmade Christmas cards normally turn into hand made thank you notes and my Christmas cheer is spread in the form of generic store bought cards with personalized notes on the inside. (remember college when your Christmas shopping didn’t get started till after final exams….think its bad to take four of five of those tests….try grading 150 of them and welcome to my life)

This year Shutterfly’s delightful selection provides me with a delightful alternative. Photo cards where I get to show off in yet another form all the many photos I’ve taken capturing our year on film. Perfect for people like me who take picture after picture after picture and can’t make decisions for the life of me there are options like this or this (the hard part…deciding between them! solution....use more photos! make a calendar! another much better than store bought product)

And so I count down the hours….till my ban on Christmas passes…and my photo creating commences. Till then I have 2 pies, a turkey, and a half dozen sides that need my attention.

is it mid-November all ready?

I am writing this post while I put off writing study guides for my students' final exams so it must be. Granted the first final exams fall a month from yesterday and none of my students have an exam until a month from sunday but who am I to crush the spirit of a student who just wants to do well. (don't actually answer that...especially if you are one of the aforementioned students because then you are likely to say "the one who takes special joy in crushing the spirit of children in the name of learning" even though this 100% is not so, even though it may seem that way at times)

The temperatures have fallen....perhaps for keeps this time which means I get to show off my newly crafted/procured hats....I will take this moment to show them off here as well...and apparently burgundy is my favorite color this year

I opened the bottom drawer of sweaters freeing the wool ones from their moth proof vacuum bags, fluffing them to snuggly proportions.

I have had not 1 but 4 snowflake mornings where my car greets me with a snowflake on the dashboard warning me to beware of ice.

I have been scouting christmas crafts as a way to channel my holiday cheer all while struggling to resist the desire to buy those oh-so-cute penguin mugs at Target because I believe in Thanksgiving and believe that it too deserves it's 15 min of fame.

and people have been willing to show us apartments for our Jan 15th move in date. The idea of which was apparently outlandish a mere month and a half ago. more on the great apartment hunt/disaster/fill-in-adjective-here-once-all-shakes-out in hopefully a couple days.

in other words yes, it IS mid-november. and the blog has been neglected for 2 weeks.THIS is what happens to Teacher Ams.

p.s. i wish teacher ams made real money so I could afford to buy art at holiday gatherings like this