A Christmas gift...

On Friday, I got to spend the day with Leslye at school. I went with her to film the school Christmas program for the Santo Elementary School, including her Pre-K class performing Five Little Reindeer and Rudolph. They were cute in their little t-shirts they made with their feet as Rudolph's head and their hands as his antlers. They went home afterwards and we de-Christmased her room and prepared it for the winter. I painted a snow man and a polar bear on the doors out front, and she cleaned everything from top to bottom trying to get rid of the "bug" that was going around the school that week.

She also did some lesson plans and got her room ready for the first week of school when they get back.

I enjoyed helping my wife during the day. As many of you may know she has helped me at home football games in the pressbox, and I love having her helping me in my work, and she has told me several times this weekend that she was glad to have me there, too.

As I waited for the Pre-K to start, I watched my wife interacting with her students. I took several pictures with our video camera that is supposed to take still pictures, but it only kept one that I don't remember that I took, and it was of a crowd of people. I can remember several pictures that I took of her and the little ones as she interacted with them (of course, without their parents' permission, I wouldn't put them on here anyway).

I saw the look on her face as they practiced for the program before, the smile on her face as she watched her little ones perform, knowing the hard work had paid off. I watched the joy she had as she talked with the kids after the program and hugged them as they parted ways for the holiday break.

The kids really love her. Not only do they tell her often (some every day - and you should see the joy on her face as she tells me the daily stories), but you can see it in the way they look at her. Just by seeing that, you can see she is a great teacher.

More than that, though, her principal loves her, too. I can tell by the things I hear and by the way she interacts with her when I have been at school - she knows Leslye is a great teacher, too.
This Christmas, Les and I decided the new car, the new house and the new-to-us car were going to serve as great presents for each other. We are going to fill each other's stockings tomorrow, but I believe I got what I wanted.

I saw my wife in her element. I saw my wife and the way people interact with her, and the way they love her. I saw my wife truly loving her job, and her job really loving her. That made me very proud... and that was a great Christmas gift for me.