Tis the season

 BOTH of my parents asked if I was exciting for work this week. NO!!! Every American teacher  knows that the 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are chaos.  While we may occasionally get a thank you card, or a holiday gift, it's mostly us giving giving giving.  Giving of our time with increased activities. Giving of our resources. Giving of our time- trying to fit in all those retakes before break. Losing of our sanity as students count down the days to break. And yes we are county too.  So will I go in and do my job for the next 3 weeks? Yes I will. Will I do all the extras? No, not this year. While I have committed to some, I am also committing to myself to care for me 1st. 

Leaving Thanksgiving and going into what is for me the Christmas Season has brought with it some medical issues. Case could be make every season for me is filled with medical issues, but these are newer and extra. 

The electrical pain that started in early November has continued and the medication meant to limit it doesn't do much. Around Thanksgiving I started to experience new symptoms: Right Side only weakness, my eyes felt like they weren't working together, balance issues, nausea and over all fatigue. After 4 days of pushing though work I took the day off and saw my doctor. Good news is it's not Covid, the Flu or an ear inflection, bad news is I don't know what it is. The new symptoms started shortly after increasing a medication dosage, so I am weaning myself back down, but it's not a med I can just go off. I am also in the process of changing a medication for anxiety in hopes something else will have fewer unwanted side effects. So I'm preparing for 2026 to be a year of a lot of medical appointments and exams. So I am thankful for good healthcare and premiums that are for now staying level. 

A week later and the ride side only crap is gone.  Seems like it was a side effect of a pain med that was being tried to be able to reduce a different pain med. Now I'm just sick. Doing my best to listen to my body before I go home for the holidays so I can enjoy my time at home.

Well, I am officially done with school for 2025 and I feel good going into my winter holiday. All of my IEP's got sent out that needed to. I have a plan for the lift of January when I get back. Everything in grade book is up-to-date. All of the reminders were sent out to my students who, maybe, aren't doing as well as they could be about an assignment that they could very easily do over a break that could raise their grades by up to 8%.  I don't feel like I have things hanging over my head this year and considering that I have felt like I have had something hanging over my head for the entirety of this school year. That is a really nice reprieve.

Now the struggle of getting everything I need to take home with me to fit in one checked suitcase, I can travel on the road for a month out of one carry-on, but going home for the holidays means events and church and having to look more put together every day, but also need an outfits for the gym and things for really cold weather and multiple pairs of shoes. I think I've gotten everything to fit all that needs to be packed now is my laptop and charging cable, cables and headphones so wish me luck that nothing explodes and my slightly too large personal item is allowed to slide by. --The only thing that didnt have an issue on this travel day was my baggage. Flight delayed over 2 hours, once we landed in MSP we were stuck on the tarmac for another hour. Didn't get to my dad's until nearly 4am having left my house 10 hours earlier. 

I slept until noon my first day home. Got coffee and a light lunch with my mom at Backstory Coffee in Bloomington. They make their own syrups in house and yes they are better than Starbucks. Less sweet though so probably not for everyone. Mom loved her hot cocoa. In addition to my Miel Latte I got a turkey cranberry wrap-basically thanksgiving in a warm tortilla. No complaints but very rich. 

I think the coffee so late was a bad idea for me plus the travel weariness I didn't sleep almost at all Sunday night which left me pretty groggy and miserable on Monday. Didn't do much of anything took meds to help me sleep and went to bed at 8pm and woke up again at 7am feeling much better So Monday was a wash. 

Tuesday I went to the gym with my dad- they have these wonderful cryo and massage chairs that left my body feeling renewed even after what is for me an intense work out day. 

After the gym Dad and I had lunch with an old family friend at French Meadow Bakery which was the staple someone is in town or we have something small to celebrate spot growing up and as an adult. Very filling meal was lunch and dinner today.  Tuesday evening I picked up hot cocoa and took my mom out for a drive to see holiday lights.  The city of Bloomington put out a map of decked out homes to go see this year and I've got to say the suburbs were very impressive. 

I especially enjoyed the dragon and the 2 kissing sauropods (long neck dinos). 

When you have divorced parents you get 2 of everything, but you also have to divide your time, energy, space, because you cannot be in 2 places and once, and frankly for me and our family it's healthier if we do it separately. So Christmas Eve was spent with my mom and brother. Church with mom followed by a very sweet dinner with my mom and brother. We enjoyed grilled cheese with tomato soup, did some puzzles together and sang some Christmas tunes. 

Christmas morning was back at mom's for pastries, gift exchanges, more Christmas carols-this time dancing in the kitchen as we made Krumkake together. Afternoon was at dad's. More gifts were exchanged and we enjoyed a much more traditional Christmas meal. All tolled I'm sleepy, it was a long day but it was nice and sweet and kind and that's a huge improvement for me. 

Friday night I went out for a girls night with my childhood best friend. She took me to some of her favorite cocktail places in Minneapolis. Public Domain In the North Loop is an interesting space. I love that it's on the small and quiet side. Can enjoy the company of the people you are with more than some of louder ventures int he city. But there is no menu. You simply have a conversation with the bar tender and they make you a drink. So I don't have much of a clue as to what I had it was good and a fun experience.  That said I am getting older and my body doesn't play nice with drinks as it once did. I certainly felt it the next morning and missed out on time with family that I was looking forward to, which I feel really bad about. So I think I'll stick to ginger ale, coke and water the rest of the time I'm home. 

Dinner on Saturday night with dad and 2 of his friends at eM que Viet in St. Paul was a tasty treat. The stand out of the night for me was the pork dumplings. Though my sesame chicken wasn't bad, but I could have lived on the dumplings. Unsurprising giving dumplings are my favorite food group and these did not disappoint.  While my dining companions got lovely looking cocktails, I stuck to hot tea which served me well. 

Sunday we were struck with a Blizzard. Set to snow all day while there were breaks in the snow it made for difficult but not impossible driving. I decided to go spend some time with my mom before picking up my brother to bring him back over to the St. Paul side as he works tonight, at this stage of life I am a better driver than either of my parents and certainly better eyes, so this is something I was happy to take on.  It's also given me an opportunity to spend more time with my brother than probably the last 3 times I've been home combined. He has started to mature, ask more questions of me, and engage in 2 way conversations that are more than just 1-2 back and forth. While he and I are both Autistic and what I would call "Small dose" people, we've had multiple opportunities to enjoy getting to know who the other is at this stage in our lives and for that I'm forever grateful. 

Monday I spent time with a dear friend from HS; who I don't see nearly enough as the years have past but who it's always been nice to catch up with. We people watched and did a bit of shopping at MOA- probably got our fill of the Mall for the next decade and then went to a fun little speakeasy in Eagan called Volstead house.  I enjoyed the "To your health" and switched to mocktails so as to not repeat the night out with Natalie from Friday. 

Tuesday I ventured up to Isanti to spend time with my college besties (who married each other- I'm super lucky) and their 3 kids. We had dinner at drinks at a local favorite Garphish brewing where we lost horribly at trivia but had some good laughs.  Enjoyed some baby snuggles with their youngest and enjoyed brunch with Emily on NYE at another favorite spot Leader in Cambridge.  Their lattes are truly a treat. Their brunch is wonderful with big hearty Minnesota portions. I never thought I'd have favorite places in this part of the state, but Ben and Emily are my chosen family so I've learned the places that make that slice of MN feel like home too. 

I joined my dad and a friend of his for an early NYE celebration at Brit's Pub in Minneapolis to ring in the New Year with the London crowd at 6pm our time. They passed out champagne to toast and then there was 10 minutes of bagpipes to celebrate. Honestly a pretty cool time in a packed bar.

After dinner I dropped dad off at home and went to see my brother and mom one last time before heading home tomorrow. I made a final batch of Krumkake, did the last of the advent puzzles with mom and snuggled up with Roxy by the fire for a bit before heading back to my dads to finish writing this and get a good night sleep before my flight tomorrow.

Signing off for 2025

-Claire