Last night my daughter asked me which was my favorite holiday? I told her it was Thanksgiving through the New Year! This time of the year offers us a chance to celebrate, a chance to be thankful, a chance to be generous and a chance to renew! What more could you ask for?

Last week, we moved out of FranDelJA’s birthplace. It was a difficult task on every level. We have so many memories there to take with us. Life is like that sometimes, where we  find ourselves in situations where we must choose to face that which is difficult and make the most of it. That’s exactly what our team did! Together, everyone rose to the occasion and successfully moved and set up the classrooms. They were absolutely amazing!

We opened our joined venture on Monday which came with tricky challenges of its own: unhappy families, challenging behaviors, sick co-workers, a phone system we still need to learn, lots of rain, and more. From my perspective, each person navigated with courage and grace. As I walked through the hall on Monday, I saw children and adults engaged and happy (almost all of them). We have divided the infants into the Caterpillar Room for younger infants, and the Cricket Room for older infants. The toddlers have also been separated by age, where the younger toddlers are now in the Ladybug Room and the older toddlers are in the Butterfly Room. Our preschoolers are in the Dragonfly Room. Being able to offer five teachers per classroom will make breaks and sick time easier on the staff, and it awards us the opportunity to offer a little extra help with the children’s individual age-appropriate milestones. While there will still be challenges that we will have to face in the days and weeks ahead, this season does have its benefits, let’s finish the year FranDelJA style, holding hands as we go through it together, and even if it rains, we dance! There’s no other team that I’d rather dance with!

Merry Christmas to our FranDelJA team and all the children/families that make it all worth it!

Tracy List,
Executive Director