By Elizabeth Prata

Today is the last day of my two-week Christmas break from school. I loved it. It is a welcome break to look forward to as the first half of the year ramps up week by week until the frenzy of testing, teaching, and Christmas events reaches fever pitch. Then we go home in Mid-December and collapse on our couches and go "Phew!"

Or at least that's what I do. It's a great rest and recoup time.

Mysterious shed in the rain
Not so mysterious shed in the sun

Friday: The very first night of the school vacation I spent in the city with a friend having dinner at a scrumptious Mexican restaurant. Then we went to see the lights show at the Botanical Garden. It was the perfect start to the holiday festivities.

Lights at the Botanical

Saturday: Cozy, reading and writing and drinking tea all day. Movie: Matthew Perry in The Ron Clark Story, about a teacher working in inner Harlem with angry and disruptive high school kids. Inspiring.

Sunday, Church service was wonderful and dinner at church afterward. I spent a long while visiting with returning friends from CA who I hadn't seen in many months.

Monday: I broke the internet with my post that included photos of Beth Moore as an Anglican speaking from the pulpit. Movie: Miss Potter, a wonderful charming time spent watching Renee Zellweger as Beatrix Potter. Great scenery too.

Tuesday: Spent time at a cool coffeehouse with a friend having caramel macchiatos and and talking over theology.

Wednesday: I hosted friends at my home. We had a wonderful visit!

Thursday: I cooked enchilada casserole, chicken chili, I read and then I took a nap. That's what rest time away from work is for! Naps are great! By the end of my time at home I don't need to nap any more. At the beginning, I do.

Friday: I made a Christmas Eve run to the favorite vintage store and got a few items. Then watched Project Runway All Stars. I love seeing hearing the assignment then watching the designers' creative process unfold. How each designer comes up with something aligned with the brief but totally different from other designers. The human brain's capacity for creativity is always interesting to me.

Saturday: I started an online class on Prayer, made faux pancakes (they're fake because they are made from almond flour not white flour and thus taste like cardboard drenched in sand topped with maple syrup). I watched Hallmark's G-rated movie, Signed, Sealed, Delivered For Christmas. It was great. I had tears.

Sunday: Hey, its the day after Christmas, time to put away the holiday décor!! In order to do that, I "had to" pull out everything from my closet an reporganize it! Happy! Then stipped all holiday items from the living room and buttond up the holiday till next year I loved putting out the holiday stuff and I loved putting it away even more. Phew, now back to normal

The rest of the school break was just me hanging around, reading watching tv, and just chilling out.

I don't know why, but that day dozens of robins congregated in the trees between the rain showers. Here are three vying for position.

One goal I'd had for the break was to inventory my books. I have many hundreds of books, maybe even 1000, and I need to make sure if my library was ever destroyed in a fire or flood, God forbid, that I had some idea of what books were gone. I researched software for inventorying purposes and decided on LibraryThing. It offers a small scanner. All I need to do is scan the ISBN and it automatically converts to author/title etc in the software. The scanner is not arriving till tomorrow though, after my break ends, but I'll do a few books at a time each evening from here on out. It is a goal I'd had and I was glad take a chunk out of the mountain by settling on which software and finding out about the scanner. I was glad to find the scanner. I'd thought I would have to type them all in!

So that's it. Me and my exciting life. I like it well enough. It's steady, manageable, and quiet. Just right. :).

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