it's beginning to look a lot like christmas.

"celebrate me home" by kenny loggins; it's been on repeat for the last few weeks.

It was Christmas today at Casserly House--and it was perfect. Okay, I'm lying. It wasn't perfect, but it was exactly what I needed... and that kind of makes it perfect.

People who know me well know that I love Christmas. However, twenty-four hours ago, I was honestly dreading today. As per Casserly House tradition, we had both a Christmas party with the morning ESOL students, then another party for the After School kids. Preparing for all of this has been crazy, and I was just really tired. Frankly, I was not really happy with the Thanksgiving prayer service/party I planned, and I was dreading this afternoon in fears that it would be more of the same. Part of me was just ready to throw in the towel and head home to Missouri for ten days.

However, today was wonderful. It wasn't perfect, but there were a lot of really wonderful, beautiful moments in the midst of the craziness, like eating food the morning ESOL students brought in from their home countries and singing Christmas carols with them. In the end, it all worked out; the kids party went really well--way better than I could have hoped--and I just felt so happy, so thankful, so (cheesy as it is) full of Christmas cheer.

It's days like today that remind me of why I'm here, why I love it, and why it's so important. It's these memories that are going to make getting on another plane to come back to Boston in ten days to tackle the rest of this year that much easier.

Tomorrow night at this time, I will most likely be on the way home from the airport with my parents. I already plan on listening to playlist of Christmas music with titles involving the word "home" for most of the way, with a side of this and this, and my suitcase is packed and ready.

Missouri, you're calling my name tonight, but it's nice to be reminded of the reasons Boston has carved out such a place in my heart.