Another weekend has come to an end and I still haven't put my Fall courses to bed. I have a student who is sick and I am waiting on her final assignment. Already thinking about the changes I have to make to the documents for Spring semester courses. When I was a school librarian I loved the Holiday Break as I was truly on vacation when school was out. I could curl up and read, bake with the kids and we'd play cards and Scrabble for hours. I never worried about going back to work. I always was given a much wanted bestseller that I curled up with Christmas afternoon. Now I look at semester breaks as a time to try to catch up on work. I think I need a vacation with no laptop, email, or phones!!

We were supposed to drive up to Georgetown and go to a radio show style play of It's a Wonderful Life. You know I have to be feeling really rotten not to want to go out to dinner and to the play. Steve also has an awful head cold and I don't think anyone would have been very happy to be sitting next to him. So we watched old b/w movies while I sat with the heating pad on my neck. I can't believe I am actually saying I am looking forward to having needles stuck in my neck and arms tomorrow afternoon, but I am. At least maybe the neurologist will find something. This testing has to be done before I go back to the pain management doctor on Thursday when he is going to do some type of shot that should block the pain in my neck. If it works there may be light at the end of this 6 month long tunnel of pain. I really like the new pain management doctor - he has the most wonderful British accent. And, he lived in New Zealand and knows exactly where Mic was hiking. He was telling me what a beautiful country New Zealand is. Still don't have the heart to visit where Mic died.

We would have tons of snow if it were a bit colder. Lots of rain for days here. We need it, but I am tired of the gray days. Kinda of matches me mood lately. But, I have been watching Christmas movies while putting together receipts for the end of the year Flex Spending Account. I am on my second Dolly Parton Christmas movie. Steve is watching football in the living room so I am curled up on the bed. Thank goodness for laptops!

Not exactly a Christmas title, but I loved Neil Gaiman's M is for Magic, a collection of his short stories that have been published in other places and pull together for a teen audience. He has such a way with creepy! My favorite one is about the boy that has been raised by ghosts and finds himself entering the human world to try and buy a headstone for a witch. Gaiman plays with well known nursery rhymes and turns them into a detective short story about finding out who really killed Humpty Dumpty. I found myself laughing out loud and/or shuddering all while reading the same story. The writing quality varies greatly amongst the stories but they are all a delicious read. A great Christmas gift for the younger teen who loves ghost and horror stories.

I listened to part of Gaiman's interview on B&N and he is a very interesting guy. I had to chuckle as he talked about teachers telling him not to read comics as they would rot his mind, but he was also the kid who won the English award and has read every book in the school library. I wish all kids would just listen to their own reading hearts and read what they want. The more comfortable with books kids get the more likely they to be reading everything in sight as they get older. Tell them the books they love are trash reading or junk is an awful thing to do, but teachers and some parents do just that.

I know my Christmas romances are junk reading, but so what? I enjoy them. I am wallowing in Janet Dailey's Mistletoe and Molly and read almost all of it last night as I couldn't sleep because of my neck. They are escape reading that helps me keep my sanity with the rest of the things that are going on. Why would we deny kids or teens this same kind of stress relief?