And another term comes to a close

I gave my last lecture in one of my courses this afternoon (they have an exam on their last day of class, Wednesday), and I've only got two more left in the other regular class I'm teaching.
The competition for which I train the team here is on Saturday --- we have one more preparation meeting for that.  So, this time five days from now I'll be completely done with everything except for final exams.

This has been a loooooooong term, feeling far longer than any before.  I'm looking forward to this break.

Yours, counting days, hours,...
N.

It's hard to get into the spirit

With our going away for much of next month, we've decided not to get a tree, not to put up decorations, not to get into the house-part of the holiday spirit.  And that,  I find, makes it harder to get into the non-house-part of the spirit too.
And now, it seems that our long tradition, with several other local friends, of having a joint party for the Christmas parade, is at risk of not happening this year.  It's not terrible, but it is a little sad.  There is still some hope, and it is possible that it may still happen.  We shall see.

Yours, wanting to feel more in the spirit,
N.

How soon they learn

Yesterday afternoon we went to the town square to look at the Christmas "tree".  (Christmas traffic cone, enlarged by a factor of 30, and coloured green, is more like it)   At one point she and Skibo and I were talking, and she came out with

"If Santa Claus isn't real, then who delivers all the presents?"

at which point Skibo, sitting on my lap, leaned over to her and whispered, too quietly for me to hear

"I think it is Mummy and Daddy!"

(at least, I think that is what he said).
I pointed out to Boo that that was a conundrum indeed, and that perhaps she could consider the fact that presents are indeed delivered, and she should draw some conclusions.  All in language more conducive to a conversation with an incredibly bright seven year old, of course.  She smiled happily and nodded.
A few hours later they each got to sit on Santa's lap after the tree-lighting ceremony.  While there, Boo noticed that Santa appeared to have a mustache underneath his fake beard.  On returning to me, she explained that she knew that this was just a fake Santa, because of the beard, and that she thought that he probably flew to the North Pole each night to let the real Santa know what all the children asked for for Christmas.

I thought this a delightful explanation:-)

Yours, keeping the legends alive,
N.

Buy nothing day

I almost managed it.  The only thing that I bought was a couple of loaves of bread for dinner (I'm running behind on the baking schedule, as I am on the knife-sharpening schedule, as I am on the grading schedule, etc).
But we all managed not to go out at three in the morning to hit the post-Thanksgiving sales and do all of our Christmas shopping.
For which I am,

Thankfully, yours,
N.

Giving thanks

We've given thanks, hopefully genuinely enough to be understood to be really meaning what we say!  My favourite thanks this evening were from young mister M, aged 5, who declared that he is thankful for carrots.

We feasted, roast beef, roast turkey, five or six different vegetable dishes, and have tons of leftovers.

And now it is back to a day-to-day basis.

Yours, giving thanks today, tomorrow, and every day,
N.

Tolerance

I'm very thankful for tolerance --- I try to be tolerant of other people (and being somewhat unusual, I occasionally need that tolerance!)  And I try to encourage tolerance in others at all times.
Fortunately, in spite of living in a small southern town, most of the time we are surrounded by tolerant people, tolerance, and good will.

Yours, in the hope that this may long continue,
N.

Smart children

There -- the "what I'm thankful for" is in the title.
This evening, Boo decided to take her Thanksgiving placemat, (hand-shaped cut-outs and foot-shaped cut-outs pasted onto a sheet of card stock, laminated: quite lovely) and write -- in cursive yet -- all the things that she is thankful for upon it.
It was quite lovely.
Skibo is reading away like crazy -- pretty much further along than Boo was a year ago, I think: and he's 21 months younger. 
Amazingly wonderful, both of them.
Yours, wondering how could I be more thankful for anything else,
N.

A one-day week

As this week is Thanksgiving here in the US, and as we are off from Wednesday on, and as I don't teach in the mornings on Tuesdays, and as my afternoon class on Tuesdays is on a volunteer basis and the students told me none of them were coming tomorrow:

I am now officially on a six-day weekend.  And you know what?  I'm grateful!

Yours, thankfully,
N.

Grandparents

With living so far from where both LOML and I grew up, I'm particularly thankful that we occasionally get to see the childrens' grandparents.  It's not as often was we would like, but still, Boo and Skibo have spent more time with Grandma, Grandpa, Nana and Granddad than I ever did with my Grandma, and perhaps even more than I did with my Grandpa.  I'm very glad that we're going to be able to spend some time with each of them next month, provided life doesn't throw any obstacles in our way.
I'm also incredibly grateful that we have friends like K&K, who are willing and happy to be surrogate grandparents in Boo and Skibo's lives, to be amazed and delighted by them day by day, and to tell them how wonderful they are, to be believed in a different manner than Mummy and Daddy can be believed.

Yours, thanking a third time,
N.

Humour

Another thing that I am thankful for: my sense of humour, and other people's putting up with it.  I enjoy telling jokes, many of which are, unfortunately, awful: so when people find them funny nonetheless, it makes me happy.  Usually these days it is Boo and Skibo who are my audience -- what will I do when their senses of what is funny matures?

On a related note, I just watched the fifth of six episodes of the Monty Python documentary, having missed episodes 1-4.  It's been an absolutely brilliant, hilarious time watching it.

Yours, feeling pythonesque,
N.

Thanksgiving

There are a bunch, indeed, a bundle, a whole huge pile of holidays celebrated by the US which are not celebrated in the rest of the World --- or are celebrated under a different name, on a different day, and with appropriate seriousness instead of barbecue.
Of the holidays that I get to enjoy and participate in now, the one that I think is the best is Thanksgiving.  It (and its Canadian version, by some accounts something of a predecessor, certainly in the calendar) is a wonderful day, a day to give thanks for all that is good in life, a day to contemplate how lovely, regardless of the difficulties of the daily grind, one's lot is.
And so, for the next few days, I am going to try to give a few thanks in advance of the day.
Tonight, I"m thankful for the love of LOML and Boo and Skibo, (even when the children sometimes have trouble showing it, it is only a few minutes before the love pops out its head again).  The fact that we are all basically healthy and happy, headstrong and sassy is good!

Yours, thanks the first,
N.

Children when I return

It always takes a few days for the family to settle back into the fact that I am home, after a trip, and today the children seemed like they were back to normal.  Now, by normal, I mean "usual behaviour" -- I'm not tying their behaviour down to any special social constructs.  After all, I like being able to describe them as "back to normal":-)

Yours, celebrating normality,
N.

RH Day

What a wonderful turnout!  I'm guessing about a hundred people came out for our local little celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Riemann Hypothesis! Admittedly, we had a bunch of faculty offer credit to students to attend the lectures, but still, a nice turnout!

Yours, all talked out,
N.

Home again

Home again, home again, jiggety jog.  As my parents would say.

Back home, safe, sound, and happy to be with LOML, Boo and Skibo.

Yours, tripped out,
N.

Airport wireless

It's quite a wonderful thing --- all three airports this trip (beginning, middle and end) have had free wireless available.  It's meant that I can update LOML on progress, and check email, etc. 
Quite lovely.

Yours, gratefully,
N.

Our talks are over

Our talks are over --- good audiences, good attention, good questions, good interaction.  And now it's time to think about getting on a plane and going home, tomorrow early afternoon (local time).

And so tomorrow night I get to sleep back in my own bed, next to LOML, Love Of My Life, rather than in a lonely hotel room.

Yours, not counting the hours, just waiting until they are over,
N.

Another difficulty with being away

is that I want to be home, with LOML and Boo and Skibo, able to give hugs and kisses and say "I love you" in person. 
Another 48 hours and I should be home, asleep, and worrying whether I have all my ducks in a row for Wednesday.

Yours, home and away?  I'll take home!
N.

One difficulty with being away

One minor difficulty with being away from home, especially three time zones west, is that blogging before bed is no longer enough.  Now I have to try to blog before 9pm as well so that the post goes up with the appropriate day!

Only three more days, and it's back to my time zone.

Yours, off-sync,
N

Day one of the conference

The first day of the conference went well: our session was very well attended: about thirty people, which was about as much as the room would handle.  Other than some minor problems with computers (and since the conference is about computers, minor problems magnify immensely!) things went pretty smoothly.  Lots of compliments afterwards.
All in all, I'm enjoying the trip, except for the fact that our hotel is about half an hour's drive from the conference centre, and nowhere near anything else: as a consequence,  I will not get any time to be a happy tourist.  Oh well, that is not why I'm here.

Yours, away from home,
N

Travel days

Leaving at midday, getting into the town at midnight.  Draining.

Taking advantage of public wifi at airports?  Priceless.

Yours, on the ground,
N.