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Dec. 7th, 2012
Of Christmas parties and preparations
Dec. 7th, 2012 08:31 pmIt's just been a busy week. I've been wanting/needing to write, but it's hard to put things together when my head is full of scraps of wrapping paper and instructions in Chinese. I'm making a dent, though! And reading some books I've been waiting on as well. The Raven Boys (Maggie Stiefvater) was definitely creepy and intriguing, and I'm interested to see what happens next. I wanted to take Adam home by the end and give him a nicer future, and I understood how frustrated Gansey felt when people could only see what he had and not what he was trying to be. Girls, Geeks, and Secret Identities (Mike Jung) was a fun read that I'm now reading aloud to my kids. The 4YO is a little young for novels, but if it was a movie, it would be his favorite one. Superheroes, robots, and geeky kids, what's not to love?
Today was a double event day. The district has had this week long intensive in all the grades against bullying. The final event was to be an hour-long walk at the park after school. Free t-shirts to everyone who came, and doughnuts and hot chocolate as well. Um. They seriously underestimated how many kids would show up. They ran out of everything extremely quickly, leaving most of the kids with nothing, and on top of that, the windchill was 19 degrees and the sun was setting. When I went to pick up my kids (early), there were tons of kids wailing from either disappointment or cold or both. Ironic at an anti-bullying event, no? The only kids to get anything were the ones big and strong enough to get there first. Ah, well, there's always next year... And really, I was glad it ended early! It was SO cold and SO windy, and I really don't want to spend Christmas quarantined with pneumonia.
Then right after that was the ward Christmas party, which was lovely. Everyone dressed up (er, except us, since I did not have time to put together costumes), and there were stalls with Middle Eastern food (olives! pita bread! baklava!), and we all sat on the floor crowded together, and there was a live and rather curious Baby Jesus, and we all sang Christmas carols and listened to nice background Christmas music, and when the kids had enough of that, there was a dreidel corner. I like the kinds of events that make you feel like you're there. Once in Germany, we had a surprise one like that. We thought it was just an nice dinner, and knew that each organization (the kids, the youth, the women, the older men, etc.) was in charge of preparing one song to sing. What we didn't know was that we were taking part in the actual performance, and by the end, instead of performing for an audience, everyone was on the straw-strewn stage as if we were really visiting Bethlehem together. It was lovely, and this made me think of it.
There's a good chance of snow this weekend, so we are I think getting ready for Christmas to arrive. I hope your December is lovely, whatever you are doing and however you celebrate!
Today was a double event day. The district has had this week long intensive in all the grades against bullying. The final event was to be an hour-long walk at the park after school. Free t-shirts to everyone who came, and doughnuts and hot chocolate as well. Um. They seriously underestimated how many kids would show up. They ran out of everything extremely quickly, leaving most of the kids with nothing, and on top of that, the windchill was 19 degrees and the sun was setting. When I went to pick up my kids (early), there were tons of kids wailing from either disappointment or cold or both. Ironic at an anti-bullying event, no? The only kids to get anything were the ones big and strong enough to get there first. Ah, well, there's always next year... And really, I was glad it ended early! It was SO cold and SO windy, and I really don't want to spend Christmas quarantined with pneumonia.
Then right after that was the ward Christmas party, which was lovely. Everyone dressed up (er, except us, since I did not have time to put together costumes), and there were stalls with Middle Eastern food (olives! pita bread! baklava!), and we all sat on the floor crowded together, and there was a live and rather curious Baby Jesus, and we all sang Christmas carols and listened to nice background Christmas music, and when the kids had enough of that, there was a dreidel corner. I like the kinds of events that make you feel like you're there. Once in Germany, we had a surprise one like that. We thought it was just an nice dinner, and knew that each organization (the kids, the youth, the women, the older men, etc.) was in charge of preparing one song to sing. What we didn't know was that we were taking part in the actual performance, and by the end, instead of performing for an audience, everyone was on the straw-strewn stage as if we were really visiting Bethlehem together. It was lovely, and this made me think of it.
There's a good chance of snow this weekend, so we are I think getting ready for Christmas to arrive. I hope your December is lovely, whatever you are doing and however you celebrate!