Holy Ham!

'Tis the season for Christmas gifts from the administration. (I really do appreciate the effort they make, and realize it's impossible to please everyone. It is entertaining, though, to compare notes on the obligatory Christmas gift.)

So, after 2 interruptions into 4th period for various announcements from whoever has the controls for our PA system, someone broke in again to tell the teachers that we needed to hustle out to the parking lot the moment school got out so we could pick up our Christmas gift. I had kids in my room after school, so I hurried out as soon as I could (after yet another announcement over the intercom). Lo and behold, I was given a ham--a rather large ham. I think it will take me and Ryan a month to eat through it. I didn't have any place cold to put it, and I still had another 45 minutes of work to do in my room. Hope the ham is still okay. I think the ham was frozen. It was still kind of cold when I finally got it home... I think its odds are better than the turkey I was given in the MORNING one year that I had to hang on to until school got out at noon.

My personal favorite for quirky administrative Christmas gifts was the year we got faculty shirts at the beginning of the year, and then a card at Christmas time: "We hope you continue to enjoy your shirt." I should have kept the card, because no one believes me when I tell them that story. The shirts weren't that great, either. We were asked to wear them for parent-teacher conferences, and all of the female staff had an extra shirt/turtleneck on under the faculty shirts because the fabric was chintzy and thin.

Anyway, I'm not a total cynic about Christmas gifts. I realize it's difficult to please everyone, especially when you feel obliged to give a staff a gift that ends up being the same for all. It does bring up a few vital questions though. Do they really need me to give me something? I think I would feel just as loved if they skipped the ham and donated the proceeds to a charity. And the most pressing question of all--what the heck am I going to do with all that ham?