Where are you Christmas, Why Can't I Find You

There were certain things that I banked on to really bolster my Christmas spirit: children asking me for weeks on end if I believed in Santa (which, for the record, I do!), working on the adopt-a-family program ( seeing the gratitude and humbleness in the faces of the receivers filled the heart with the meaning of advent), holiday art work lining hallways (there is just something about a reindeer built of construction paper cut outs with antlers made of tiny paint hand prints of a Kindergarten child), holiday classroom parties and the reindeer relay.  This year my spirit register is a little low to say the least.  I don't know if it would be fair to blame it on middle school attitudes that visit the chairs next to my desk--it just might be one of those years, a phase.

I had to look around work in which I managed to find a few things, although different from before, that were there offering up the spirit that comes with my "new world."...

It seems my boss got a Christmas outfit promotion since last year. I think he might have liked the Santa suit as much as he liked the elf.  He wore the Santa pants all day long.  I uncovered this costume in the office closest during the transition.  Like me it too got to stay in the building.  A little, a lot, of Febreeze later and it was wear ready.

(I believe this photo should be titled "you aren't Santa, you're a fake, you smell like beef and cheese")

This is where I got a small injection of Christmas spirit.  It came on the last day before holiday break.  The kids of the performing art classes show casing there holiday concert pieces--orchestra, choir, show choir and band.  

Today I have to reach down inside in me to pull my spirit up and get down to business. Heck, I still have a few gifts to get and some grocery shopping to do.  Oh and one more batch of cookies to crank out.

Then I can rest, on this eve of Christmas Eve.