Our son woke up at 5:45 asking for breakfast, climbed into our bed, and promptly fell back asleep. At 7:00, when it was actually time for breakfast, he asked whether it was a school day. I said it was, the best kind of school day — the Friday before vacation. He started to cry.

“I just want to stay home.”

He was still half asleep, he was hungry. As I got things ready, his big sister talked about all the fun that kindergarteners have on the Friday before vacation, commiserated with him about the various things not to like about kindergarten, then reminded him that they’ll have 14 days in a row of no school. She’s very good at giving pep talks.

He ate his pancakes and fruit–even asked for second helping. He drank his juice. By the time we left for school, he was happy and energetic again.

My husband got home very late last night from his business trip (we had processed all this news about his career path over the phone). This morning, he asked, “How are you? Are you bummed?”

He had this sad smile on his face.

“No, I’m just tired from all the waiting for this, waiting for that.”

That’s all I am, just tired. But now I’ve had my coffee. And it’s cold outside, so I’m going to go for a run. And then I’m going to get some kind of reindeer toy for our son and some kind of surprise for our daughter (this is what they said they hoped Santa would bring).

In no time at all, I’m going to be happy and energetic again.