Some athletes remain busy because all the New England play-off games happen during these “mud weeks” as well. This year, our boys’ and girls’ soccer teams made the New England play-offs, along with our girls’ volleyball team. For everyone else at Milton though, this is a time for students to relax before the next sports season.

But what I want to talk to you about is Boarder dinner, which is the biggest event for the boarding community as a whole. All of the boarders walk over to the Robert Saltonstall Gym (RSG) the night before winter break for a themed dinner. For example, last year it was a Harry Potter theme, with our version of butter beer, and each brother-sister dorm represented one of the Harry Potter houses. The event is formal, so we wear chapel dress. The food is always superb as well, with a juicy tenderloin or steak, glazed vegetables, a pasta dish, and a specialty salad. After dinner, we go back to our respective dorm, to start caroling to other dorms (more on caroling will come later). After caroling, we return to our original dorms for Secret Santa presents. In Goodwin, our student-elected dorm monitor dresses up in the dorm’s Santa suit, and one by one, passes out the Secret Santa presents. We choose names out of a hat, and buy or make presents for that person, staying under the $20 limit we set. Once everyone receives their presents, we all go to sleep.