A much needed BREAK!

Well I made it!!! Made it through my FIRST semester as a teacher. I cant even believe I am at this point. This has been the best, worst, relaxing, and stressful semester of my life. Some days were good...some days were terrible but I have no regrets making this career change. It has been such a great experience and I really cannot wait until I can say "I have one year of teaching under my belt!" We will have a little more than two weeks for Christmas break. Since this is the last week of class before that break, there are a lot of things going on around the school. Tomorrow starts the first day of Spirit week. We all get to wear Pajamas tomorrow, Crazy socks on Tuesday, something green on Wednesday, something red on Thursday...and a free dress down on Friday! The teachers traditionally do a Secret Santa exchange the last week of school. The total spent throughout the whole week is $15 and they usually give a small gift every day of the week...saving the most "expensive" gift for the last day. The teacher I picked out of the Santa hat, will only be at school Monday through Wednesday, so I can spread the $15 over 3 days, instead of all 5. Below is a picture of the items I will be giving her.

Tomorrow I will be giving Marcy the little zipper bag with a Diet Coke and a bag of Pistachios. Her favorite beverage, and her favorite salty treat. Tuesday, I will give her the mason jar filled with dry ingredients to make Chocolate-Macadamia Nut Bars. Macadamia is her other favorite salty snack...along with chocolate...her favorite sweet snack. I made a gift tag for both of those gifts. I will also add a piece of Christmas fabric to the top of the mason jar to dress it up a bit. It was my first time mixing ingredients for a mason jar gift like this. Some of the flour fell through the chocolate chips more than I anticipated, but if I do this project again, I will know how to make it better. Finally, for the last day, I have made a card with a slot to put a gift card in it. The inside of the card says "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year -From your secret santa, Mary Beth." I was really at a loss as to what I could give as gifts for this secret santa business (I lack in creativity) but my mom really helped me decide on the zipper bag as well as the mason jar gift. What would I do without her?! I CANT WAIT for this week to be over and the break to start. Im nervous to begin next semester not only because I will be back to planning lesson plans, but I am also the new assistant soccer coach for the girls team at Harmon high school. Am I spreading myself too thin?! Maybe...but I figured I might as well dive in head first and see how it goes. MB