Santa drives a bus!

Yesterday Jackie and I provided the staff lunch which went very well, and to my surprise I was presented with a very generous and thoughtful 50th birthday present from my department - a gorgeous Jo Malone gift set in my favourite fragrance - Basil, Lime & Mandarin! Everyone had signed a card with lovely messages. I felt really quite moved. I took a class to the cinema to see "Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger" and although the plot was complete nonsense it was a really festive, comic, feel good film and we all enjoyed it.
Book club was fantastic last night. We laughed and chatted and ended up staying very late - and on a school night too! Rosemary is a lovely person and she made us a delicious supper in her beautiful home. We all opened our Secret Santas amid great jollity. They are such a nice bunch and so interesting too - one of the girls was telling us how privileged she feels to be a midwife and to help people at such an intimate and important time in their life. It got me thinking that I'm very privileged too - I love my job even though it can be very stressful at times.
As David and I approached the school this morning we saw a bus approaching as we waited at the mini roundabout - and Santa was driving it! I don't mean someone with a Santa hat, I mean Santa in full regalia with a massive beard! David and I found this very amusing!
The last day of term can be emotionally charged but this one went quite smoothly and was even quite fun, incorporating a very successful Christmas party for the pupils. We had a staff gathering at lunch time and there were five teachers who were given presentations for our 50th birthdays! It was interesting to see who is almost exactly my age. All very embarrassing but good fun - the story related about me concerned an incident on the Holland trip which was very funny - when I innocently looked out of my bedroom window only to see that it overlooked another window where a topless George R was dancing and calling "Hello ladies it is me, Raul!" (in reference to an Irn Bru advert). We did have a good laugh on that trip!
So now I'm on my holidays! It has been a long hard term but we have got a lot done and I feel that I can relax for a bit.