It's Done...

Well, we are, anyway. Another semester in the books. Some good, some bad, but a relief to be done, if only for a short while. The period from August to December always feels longer, and more of an endurance race than the second semester. I suspect that there are all kinds of reasons why this is true, and I have thought about them over the past five school years, but I am not inclined to stir them that vigorously at this point. The fall semester is just harder. It is always nice to have it over with.

The weather has not been conducive to river freezing, at least not for automobile traffic, so our car remains in Bethel for now. I thought that we might drive out for vacation at one point, but people much smarter about this subject than I are keeping their vehicles off of the ice at this point. Good enough for me. Maybe we will drive back down after the holiday.

Many of the staff members have departed for their back home climes already. Because this is our home now, we will be in less of a hurry. Our reservations were originally for Friday, but they had to be rescheduled after a mixup involving the dogs. We now leave Sunday night, but we have the comfort of flying first class all the way from Anchorage to Atlanta. Nice. My in-laws will be there at the ATL with our new Chevy Traverse-the baby and dog toter. They live a couple of hours from the airport. We get to Atlanta at about 3:30 in the afternoon Monday. I hope that some of the fearsome Atlanta traffic will be somewhat reduced by the proximity of the Christmas holiday.

We are also planning a quick trip to Detroit after the first of the year in order to visit family in Michigan. As Alice continues to grow and do cute stuff, we felt increasingly guilty about the thought that the rest of her family would be left out. This helps to solve that a little.

There are still some details to be dealt with before we leave town. I am finishing grading, and my wife has been finishing up two weeks of lesson plans, so that she does not have to deal with them when she returns. I am not so ambitious at the moment, but I have about four hours or so tomorrow with Alice while she is over here watching some professional development videos. I will get my plans done for our return. I may get ambitious and do them for the following week as well.

For now, though, I am just going to relax and enjoy life at a calmer pace for a while...Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all...

Two Weeks Left...

I mentioned the speed of time in my last post. Nothing about that has changed. We finish the first semester two weeks from today. We will spend tomorrow afternoon making sure that our grades are reasonably current. There are only two more sets of lesson plans to prepare, and then it will be time to spend an extended break with family.

Our holiday breaks encompass both Christmases, Western and Russian Orthodox, and for that reason, it runs 3 1/2 weeks this year. Although we do not have the autumnal breaks or the spring break that many schools have, the extended Christmas break truly feels like a luxury.

We will be taking Alice to spend the time with her grandparents in Alabama. She also has cousins there now, and we anticipate a joyous reunion. I am hopeful that some of my family members will be able to make it down as well. We faced a difficult decision when it came to the geographical split in family groups. Because of the unpredictable weather at that time of the year, as well as the 1500-mile round trip involved, we concluded that Alabama in the winter and Michigan in the summer will have to be the practical solution for the forseeable future.

For my part, I am looking forward to sleeping in. It is possible that I will spend the first vacation day doing just that. Wait, I am the father of a nine-month old child. It isn't going to happen....oh, well, I can dream, can't I?