It’s nice to be home! Zack has skied 3 times since our Friday night return and I put up some Christmas decorations including these pet stockings and the fabric advent calendar Mom made me.

Usually the expression absence makes the heart grow fonder refers to the people who were apart but in our case it apparently refers to our pets bonding over the fact that we left them for  aweek. We think they’ve been secretly cuddling for warmth for a while but have taken it public now that there’s snow on the ground.

Somehow going back to school after a break is a lot easier when you get to share morning reading with this cutie!

Three of my students earned a Best Bobcat award from Mrs. Glass for being caring friends at lunch one day before break. One reason I love my class so much is that they are all kind, caring souls!

Today we had a special guest reader, Lily’s big sister Lola! She read us two very amusing books and the kindergarteners were a respectful audience.

Once again, I’m so grateful to the friends I’ve made on twitter and voxer. Michelle in Iowa voxed about the lights of kindness project her 2nd graders were doing and I liked it so much, we started our own version today! She is going to decorate the hall with her lights of kindness and we are going to have a kindness parade (a concept and term I learned from Karen in RI) to distribute ours. What a fantastic way to work our way through the holiday season craziness!