Rookie Mistake

When Christmas time rolled around during my first year as a teacher I was beyond excited.  Here we were during my favorite time of the year (excluding my birthday, obviously), and it was my first year in the classroom.   Tiny fireworks were exploding inside my head on a daily basis, and the craziness of the entire season lead to my first big rookie mistake.
Christmas Presents

Now, I've gotten some pretty awesome things over the years.  A LOT of chocolate, some adorable hand written cards, Christmas pins (which I always put on so the kids can see that i'm wearing them) but that first year, oh that first year....I got a present that trumps all other gifts.  A gift that lives in infamy.  A gift that I (and here's the big mistake) opened in front of the student......sexy pajamas

with a greese stain on them

and they were itty bitty 

 and yellow

and I am not itty bitty

and yellow is not my color

You can imagine my surprise at this particular gift.  After all, I had just opened a bag of christmas cookies, a new pin (which I was wearing), a Snow Globe with a students picture in it, and several cards.  So when faced with a pair of yellow silk and lace short shorts and a tiny tank top I was left, for perhaps the first time ever, speechless.   I stammered, I stuttered, I declined holding them up for the rest of the class to see, and I fled to my friends classroom as soon as I had taken my kids to PE.   I was both relieved, and slightly horrified, to see that she had gotten a similar gift.  And, while mine had a grease stain, she only got the top half of hers so clearly I was the winner.

Plus I learned a valuable lesson, and now, when faced with any sort of gift from a student I polietly accept,  and then open them in PRIVATE!

Also, writing a thank you note to a 5th grader who has just given you sexy pajamas required all my creative writing skills to make it sound, you know, not creepy.