End of Year Teacher Gifts: When you're not ready to say good-bye

For JH - missing you

It's here.  The final last day of school.  It's my last day of preschool ever, as Children will all be in elementary school next year.  Tomorrow I'll say goodbye to a community of teachers, staff, parents, and children who have loved my family and me for the past six years and a part of me breaks.

I'm not even sad that Son is growing up - because, you  know, it's TIME.  His preschool years were amazing, fun and awesome, but we're ready for some new learning and new growth.  It's not like I wish that he could stay longer as a preschooler.

It's that I wish I could stay longer as a community member of the school.  And saying good-bye has never ever been my strong suit.  I'm not worried about Son, I'm worried about ME.  Son has already announced to his teacher, "My mom is going to cry tomorrow" and I'm sure I will.  I'll bawl with tears streaming down my cheeks.  I'm readying the kleenex and the ice packs because I don't think my heart will be able to handle it.

It becomes a question of how one says goodbye to a community.  I'm not sure.  This community was there for me when we arrived from Korea, not knowing anyone, and my first new friends in California came from this community.  My first parenting support and help came from this community.  And the friends that Children love best came from this place, so the ties are strong.

I decided to say my good-byes today in small ways.   For the office staff, I wanted to give them something small to take home that they could enjoy, and usually I make them a bunch of cookies.  This year the office staff universally is getting in shape and trimming down, so I decided on these gorgeous succulents that I found ($5 at Trader Joes) and wrote simple cards to all.

For Son's teachers, I went the route of humor.  This year has been one fraught with a lot of changes and flux at the school and the teachers were amazing and wonderful.  I wanted them to know that I KNEW that they needed time to recover from their work this year, so I decided to take this idea that I bounced off of my friend blogger over at Sillie Smile.  I wanted little prescription pads with space where I could tell the teachers how I thought that they should relax.

Sillie Smile came up with the bottle labels, prescription sheets, and the cute idea to put movie tickets (I purchased mine from Costco) into a medicine bottle as a form of packaging.  I loved the idea and I have to tell you that the teachers all did as well.  Check out her post with all the details here.

The cookies I made for the prescription were the Oatmeal Brown Butter cookies.  They are Husband's current favorite cookie, and the flavors and textures are awesome.  I made the dough ahead of time, rolled them into logs, and then sliced them.  It definitely works just as well to simply make them and make round balls of dough and bake them immediately.

Anyways, tomorrow I'll say goodbye.  I'll try not to embarrass Son with snotty face and red eyes, but who knows.  I only have an ugly cry and that will be the one that comes out.  I may need to write my own prescription pad, "How to recover from saying goodbye" and it will  say,  "Profuse amounts of chocolate and caramel.  French fries.   Chips."

  

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