Dear Teachers

I want to thank you for thinking of me at Christmas.

Every year, my kids come home with excited, shining eyes and put clumsily wrapped packages under the tree.

TO: Mom

We had a few Christmases years ago when money was tight, and those were my only presents to unwrap on Christmas morning.

Even now, these gifts are my favorite!!

I wish you could see their faces.

I wish you could see mine.

I hang their little masterpieces front and center on the tree. And at the end of the season, I gently wrap them in tissue paper for storage.

Then every year when the tree comes out again, we unwrap them together.

I always ooooooh and ahhhhhhh.

The kids holler with pride, “Oh, I made that one!! Remember, mom??? I want to hang it!!”

And my eyes fill with tears. Again.

A few of my kids are older now, and they aren’t nearly so excited about the tree.

Sometimes I hold up an ornament and say, “Oh, I loved this one! Remember, honey?” and one teen or another will look up and give a half smile from his perch on the couch.

Then I hang their clay candy canes and papier mache snowmen and snow-globe ornaments anyway. Still front and center.

My eyes linger over their little school pictures in hand-painted frames from years past. Remembering.

I know there will come a time when they are ALL grown…

And I’ll decorate the tree like every other year. I’ll ooooooh and ahhhhhh over my children’s precious little ornaments. Still taking center stage.

I’ll think about their faces. Their little voices. Their excitement at Christmas year after year. And how they couldn’t WAIT to give me a gift on Christmas morning.

I’ll remember those special moments while blinking back tears. And smile.

I want you to know, teachers, the presents you took the time to make with your students in the classroom are absolutely PRICELESS to me.

I know you didn’t have to.

You did it because you care…

And that’s what teachers do!!

I just want to say THANK YOU.