Holiday Overload

This sleepy fox, cozied up to a mug of tea, adorns the window of the paint-your-own-ceramics shop on the high street. A suitably wintry image! I'm not sure how any of our garden foxes would react to a snazzy star-spangled sweater.

Every so often this studio puts unclaimed or rejected work out on the street for people to take home. I usually don't take any of it but it always disappears, so someone does. I did snag a plate not too long ago, bearing the obviously smudged image of a stick-figure family, because I figured I could put it beneath a houseplant.

Yesterday was madly busy. We had a steady stream of high-school science classes coming through the library, picking out their winter reads. Every year the 10th Grade students read a science-related book over the holiday break and report back to their teachers in January with a review. They also give us a little sign with a condensed version of their review which we can post on the shelf next to the book. It's always amusing to see the kids trying to find the smallest, least-threatening-looking book they can find. As far as I can tell, that's pretty much their sole criteria, even though we consistently try to explain that a small book about a boring subject is far harder to read than a big book about an interesting one.

At about 1 p.m., the school Christmas tree (which was supposed to arrive on Tuesday morning) was finally delivered, and it lives in the library. So I had to whip that thing into shape. I tested our two strands of lights, and both worked, so I wrapped the tree in the lights and decked it out with ornaments. Some high schoolers, taking pity on me, asked if they could help, which I thought was very kind. And then I turned on the tree and one of the light strands simply will not come on. I have no idea why.

After all that plus a stint in the Lower School, I was ready to go home -- but no! It was time for our annual faculty/staff holiday party! The library was cleared, food and drink brought in, and I stayed for another hour or so chatting to co-workers and mingling. (Dave cleared out before the party.)

And then I had a Christmas panto to attend last night. This is something the school's faculty/staff LGBTQ+ affinity group does every year -- we go to a bawdy gay panto down by Charing Cross. This year's theme was "Beauty and the Beast" and it was quite fun, as usual. Let's just say my new mug would have fit right in.

After all that, I'm feeling a bit shell-shocked this morning. I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend of staying home and reading!