Christmas | mamavsteacher

Unlike many of the other blogs I read, I am not able to spend hours making wonderful crafty bits with Sprog over December. So here’s an idea of how my Christmas period looks in my little History teaching world.

*Disclaimer – take all of these with a pinch of salt… many are true and the hard reality of a teachers life…some are a bit of fun*

A paper Christmas tree is just about as festive as it gets around here!

A
Agitated children – desperate to feel festive and free.

B
Bah Humbug to the workplace with no decorations, not even a tree!

C
Cold – the annual festive cold from work.

D
Department night out. This is always on a school night so that we can play take the piss out of the worst hangover the next day!

E
Elation at the final bell on the last day of term – us teachers literally bounce out of school.

F
Film lessons – shush! Don’t let senior leadership know!

G
Grumpy staff… “Leave me alone…I’d rather be drinking snowballs and eating mince pies”

H
Homework booklets to design for lots of “eager” students.

I
Inventive uses of cardboard boxes to make Christmas hampers for charity… you have never teachers so competitive, screw Sports Days, Christmas hampers are where it’s at!

J
Jealousy. I feel jealousy every school holidays towards parents who get to see their little people this often all year round.

K
Kids who are fed up of school, tired, grumpy and excited all at once.

L
Lack of presents; I’m a Secondary teacher which means that we get NOTHING. All you Primary teachers who get loads of chocolate and wine and biscuits and bath stuff … can go jump!

M
Mock exam marking… I have 30 sets of 3 ½ hour exam papers to mark over the holidays. Merry Christmas to me.

N
Nativity. No such fun in secondary schools I’m afraid. Sob sob.

O
Online shopping is surely the only way to get any shopping done when you work such silly hours!

P
Planning lessons for the next 5 weeks.

Q
Quiet voices. I do enjoy not having to feel the constant threat of my voice giving up after controlling excitable teens for the whole of December.

R
Rest and relaxation – I will manage some down time and hubby is off a lot which is great as we will get lots of family time.

S
Staff Secret Santa. A source of excitement and dread in equal measures around the school.

T
Tinsel around my computer screen, one of the little festive touches going.

U
Utter excitement. Maybe it is just me, but I LOVE Christmas.

V
Verging on crazy daisy at the amount of things (work) I need to do over the Christmas.

W
Wine. I plan to drink lots of it to help me forget about the term gone by and to help me to prepare for the next round.

X
Xhaustion…the key is in the word, I’m tired and it’s the letter ‘x’, enough said.

Y
Yule log – nothing to do with teachers – I literally just couldn’t think of anything else!

Zzzzzzz

This weekend saw the second of Sprog’s adventures to London and was a big contrast to the last one. This time it was cold, super cold and we therefore required many more layers and therefore many more bags.

Bright and early we caught the train (9.00am, I’m telling you there was some super organisation to get us out at that time!) and straightaway Sprog was fascinated by 2 things; the view out of the window and the people behind/next to us. Luckily for us, he is pretty darn cute so when he hangs his head between the seats the people behind are generally not displeased or grumpy to see his grinning face!

When we eventually arrived at our destination, Sprog ate a little lunch, was amazed by my friends Christmas tree and had a failed attempt at a nap. We’d been thwarted on our journey up as he had closed his eyes as we pulled into the station!

Our primary aim for the day had been to do the annual trip to do Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, which I had missed last year as Sprog was too little still. This is a quick snap of him needing a run around before we went into Hyde Park.

Mulled cider…enough said!

This was one of the highlights of my day…melted milk chocolate on a warm Belgian waffle, it was truly divine and hit the spot of mid afternoon hunger.

At one stage, I looked down at my hands to see Iggle Piggle. How he got there, I don’t remember. How long I’d been holding him, I don’t remember. But I do know that I didn’t feel like a complete tit when I realised and it just struck me instead that my life was just incredibly different since the last time I’d visited Wonderland.

Not a Wonderland snap but Sprog was a superstar all day (apart from the small amount of screaming when he’d got so tired that he’d couldn’t handle it!) and to cap it all off, he ate properly! Not normally a big deal but for the last couple of weeks he’s been pretty fussy where he’s not felt 100% and he ate his pasta and…the mince! Cause for a small celebration!