Celebrate! (A day late)

I have much to celebrate lately, so even though this is coming out a day late, I wanted to post anyway.

I am celebrating Family:

• A week ago, my niece got married, and it brought our entire family together. Our oldest daughter came in from DC, and our youngest daughter chose to spend the nights before and after the wedding at our house, even though she has her own apartment here in town. As a mom, I celebrated that we were all together as a family.

I am celebrating Friends:

• A close friends' daughter got married yesterday. Even though the day itself was cold and gloomy, the gathering of friends as we celebrated this young couple was a gift. We ate, drank, cried at the father's toast to his daughter and her new husband, danced the night away and laughed. As dancers, we might not look that great, but we sure did have fun -- so much fun that several times, friends of the bride and groom joined our dancing group.  And laughter - what a gift!!  I can't remember the last time I laughed for that many hours on end.

I am celebrating Colleagues:

• I took on a new role this year, transitioning from the 5th grade classroom to becoming an intermediate literacy coach in 4 of our district's buildings.  My learning curve has been huge, as I now work with adults all day. But similarly to working with students, the satisfaction of helping a colleague scaffold from one learning place to the next is huge cause for celebration.  In addition, I work with 7 other literacy coaches in our district, as well as our brilliant leader.  These women keep me grounded, help guide me into best practices with adult learning, and more importantly, make me laugh.  Every day, I celebrate that these women are now a huge part of my professional life.

I hope you had some thing(s) to celebrate this week. To see what others were celebrating, head on over to Ruth's blog, where she so generously hosts this Celebration event each Saturday.