Celebrating (Friendsgiving and NCTE) in photos and in words!

It's always a highlight to my weekend to be able to press the pause button, look back at my back and share something positive with the rest of the Bloggers out there. I know this week is particularly easy to find something to celebrate since it was Thanksgiving week. However, I still want to highlight it. As I mentioned on my Facebook post recently, I love what this holiday represents here in the States. I love that family come together and just give each other the gift of time. In a country as big as the USA, people are spread all over the place. The fast-paced living style here makes it a challenge sometimes to carve out time to just be. But how beautiful is to just be... whether that's with family or in my case, with friends...I adore moments like this because they keep you grounded and they remind you that celebrations, big or small, are about finding the beauty on our daily routines, in our lives, as simple as they might be.
Here's a picture of my International Friendsgiving in Columbus. It's a beautiful life!

Celebration # 1: Beautiful Friendsgiving!

A week ago, I was blessed to be able to attend NCTE where so much great thinking, talking and planning occurs. It is the best PD of the year. Hands down. No competition. I save all year. I wait all year for those magical days. But pictures are worth a thousand words. Here's to celebrating learning and growing as a community of thinkers!

 Celebration #2: Great roommates! They are thinkers, readers, writers, they are about living and learning!

 Celebration # 3 Friends from everywhere...all across the USA. Hw blessed to be able to learn from them.

Celebration # 4; meeting Judy Blume. Do I need to say more? Not really.

Celebration #5: Chris Lehman said, "There is no evidence that spending more time on difficult texts help students read any better!". Bravo and Thank you Chris.

 Celebration # 6: I wanted to meet the famous author of the Lunch Lady series, Jarret Krosoczka but the line to meet him was...oh way too long. So, I was going to be satisfied with a simple picture...until he stopped in the middle of signing to smile for my camera. What a great sport!

Celebration # 7 Meeting Jacqueline Woodson. We talked about Each Kindness, about children and of course, about the Buckeyes. :)

Celebration # 8 Having great adventurous friends who are willing to stand in line so we can all try the famous Mike's Pastry. Totally worth it!

Celebration # 9: Meeting Chris Raschka...another talented writer.

And finally...Celebration # 10: Boston! What a gorgeous city. Hope to be back soon.