Christmas season is officially upon us--and not just because we got past Thanksgiving. The tree is up (without any bad words this year! I think we're finally figuring this out), the house sort-of decorated, and piles of snow are on the lawn outside.
Our ward Christmas party was this Friday as well. And while we do love our ward, large group functions like that make Dan uncomfortable, Andrew only wanted to go play with his friends, and Evelyn just wanted to eat the candy off the table. We ended up leaving early, as per usual, to get the kids to bed sort of close to bedtime.
Last, but definitely not least on our list of Christmas-themed events, was the annual Dutch Christmas party (Trisha's mother was Dutch, so the Dutch Christmas gets celebrated by Trisha's half-Dutch siblings, their children, and grand-children). We were supposed to kick off our celebration by viewing the city's Storybook Parade, but the parade got cancelled. (I was secretly glad--I like the parade, but I wasn't looking forward to an hour in cold, snowy weather. Sitting on the curb to watch a parade is fine--except when you have to sit in eight inches of snow). Instead, we gathered at a local church, played games, talked, ate, performed, and exchanged gifts. I think everyone had a good time, until the witching hour hit and our tired children started cracking at the seams.
In between Christmas-themed stuff we spent a busy week trying to gear up for the end of the semester (for Dan, that meant writing tests; for me, that meant grading papers like crazy. This week I had two papers on aliens and one on Bigfoot--all intended to persuade me to believe. Either the papers weren't terribly persuasive or I'm a skeptic, but I remain unconvinced!) I also squeezed in a session with my writer's group.
Wednesday we had dinner with a lovely family who were friends in State College and now work at the same university we do. They have a four-year-old daughter who got along great with Evelyn; Andrew was less impressed, as he's hit the stage where most girls are suspect. (He told me that he doesn't like any of the girls with blonde hair OR red hair in his kindergarten class.)
Tuesday night was the Evening of Excellence for Young Women. My friend and I took on the decorating (the theme was "Becoming a Masterpiece). We had nice 8x10 black and white pictures of the girls, small art cards by women painters, and a collection of poems by classical authors. We covered the tables with butcher paper and crayons (ala the Macaroni Grill) and let the girls decorate their own spots. I was proud of us--I thought we delivered something nice without being cutesy. On the other hand, I thought my friend (an art educator by profession) might have a heart attack at some of the things that were said in the presentation about masterpieces (my favorite: that Picasso was clearly lazy because the art he produced doesn't look like top quality art). Since I like both people involved (my friend and the speaker), I'll just say that their tastes in art are pretty different.
Whew! I'm tired just thinking about our week. We had fun doing it, but I'm ready for a break. Now we just have to make it past the end of the semester (this week) and finals.
1 comment:
One time our ward Christmas party was Sunday dress, and they had the program first. We left early and went to Chuck-a-Rama for dinner and came back and helped clean up. But we only had one child at the time. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has left a ward Christmas party. Big group functions also make me uncomfortable.
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