40 Shrimp and 40 Winks 'til Christmas

We enjoyed a coupla Christmas events last night, although we didn't enjoy that they were scheduled to happen on the same evening. Last night was the annual Christmas party for faculty and staff hosted by the university president and his wife (remember last year's event?). So many people accepted the president's invitation to attend that the Elks Lodge (where the party was held) had to remove a divider that usually sets off our party room from the main dining room for their restaurant, and we took over the whole facility! There were four food stations in various parts of the room, and the highlight for me was the one that featured piles of gigantic shrimp with cocktail sauce. Delicious!

We pretty much had to wolf down our food, though, because we had to get to the next event on time: Hillary's music program at school. We ended up sitting at the party with two other faculty members with children in the program, so we all left early. (And I found out today that, after we had left, my name was drawn to win a door prize: one of the poinsettia plants that decorated the tables. Just my luck.) Susan's dad had eaten supper with the girls at our house (while we were at the party) and then delivered them to the school, Hillary to get ready to perform and the other two to help him save seats for when we arrived.

The music program was called . . .

(Notice any spelling errors? By the way, the title was spelled correctly in the program, so I can't explain this very public mistake.)

. . . and featured Hillary in the role of . . .

(That's Mrs. Claus, by the way, not ol' St. Nick himself . . . although Hillary's Mrs. Claus had a large belly just like her husband's!)

She was very expressive in the delivery of her lines--so much so that people who had seen the show earlier yesterday afternoon (the students performed it at 2:00 and 7:00 P.M.) approached Susan and me before we went to the evening performance to tell us how impressed they had been and what an impression she had made on them. We were pretty proud, and it was a joy to see how "into" performing Hillary was.

Abigail commandeered the camera and put herself in charge of taking photos last night, resulting in a collection of images such as this . . .

. . . and this . . .


So just take my word for it: It was cute, and Hillary did a fine job, and we all enjoyed it.

Here's Hillary after the show posing on stage. Inside that fake fireplace is an actual television on which ran a real video of an authentic fireplace fire, making for a faux fire in the imitation fireplace throughout the performance. Very post-modern, don't you think?

Reunited

Faithful readers will recall the recent post about my own high school class reunion. Well, yesterday and today were the events of Susan's class' 20th reunion in Dickinson. I graduated in a class of 34; Susan graduated in a class of over 200. I was looking forward to my reunion because I knew all my classmates so well for 12 years; Susan was not so much looking forward to hers because those classmates whom she knew and liked she has stayed in contact with over the years--and the rest? Meh.

Ah, but you see, because Susan now lives in Dickinson, she became part of the reunion planning committee, necessitating not only our presence at the reunion events but also our set up/tear down for them (and Susan's own preparation duties, such as designing T-shirts, ordering T-shirts and the iron-on transfers, ironing on the transfers for everyone who ordered a shirt, preparing food, hauling chairs and drink coolers and crockpots around town, etc.).

Last night's event was a social at Liquid Assets, a local lounge and casino. Plus: it's smoke-free, making it quite pleasant to stay there all night. Minus: I know very few of Susan's classmates, and she was stationed at the sign-in table all night, leaving me alone to wander the very crowded room in search of familiar faces. Mostly I just kept moving, as though with purpose ("Excuse me. No, really, I have someplace that I'm trying to get to. I have a reason for repeatedly squeezing past you while walking to and fro").

Toward the end of the evening, we stepped outside to enjoy the fireworks display put on by the city of Dickinson. It was very impressive, and we stood by Leslie C. (not only Susan's classmate but also her soon-to-be coworker and the mother of one of Suzanna's classmates and friends) and her husband, whom we like. Afterward we went to Susan's aunt and uncle Mary and Dale's to pick up the girls (who stayed with them for the evening) and take them home.

Today Susan joined her classmates to ride on a Class of '88 float in the city's annual Independence Day weekend parade, so the girls and I were on our own to find a spot to view the parade. We joined Mary and Dale's family on the sidewalk outside Susan's dad's insurance business, which is our traditional viewing locale, and the girls hauled in bags of candy thrown by people on each passing float, horse, tractor, or automobile.

Susan's cousin Lisa's daughter Peyton poses for a pic with Abigail and Suzanna outside Susan's dad's business downtown, waiting for the parade to begin.

On their class float, Susan sat near a couple of her friends from school days 20 years ago: Sarah M. is seated on the trailer bed in the black shirt, Leslie C. is in a chair next to her, and Susan is in the khaki pants next to her.

The princess wave: elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist; elbow, elbow, wrist, . . .

Afterward we met up with Susan at home, loaded up the Explorer with food, and headed to Patterson Lake for a class picnic. Susan was stationed at the food table, setting up and dishing up and cleaning up, so the girls and I ate together. Then they joined the other children in playing on the gigantic inflatable games that one of the rich classmates paid a company to set up for today. The food was good, but again, my not knowing anyone made visiting a chore.

Cebe K. (on the left) headed the planning committee for the reunion; Michelle B. (on the right) participated in most of the same activities that Susan did in high school; both were in her social circle and happily posed with her after the picnic out at the lake.

Leslie C., another classmate/friend. She teaches at Dickinson High School where Susan will begin work as the librarian next month. ("Next month"?! Egads! Time's flying . . .)

Sarah M., yet another classmate/friend. Suzanna is hoping that Sarah's mom, a teacher at our girls' elementary school, will be Suzanna's teacher in the fall. (I know to whom Suzanna has been assigned, but I'm not telling!)

We cut out of the picnic early enough to take a tour of the high school, which the Dickinson Public Schools Foundation had open for alumni to return, take a look around, and ooh and aah at the changes and improvements over the years. I'd never been in more of the school than the gymn for Susan's siblings' high school graduations and in the gymnastics room for our own daughters' weekly practices, so I found it interesting to look around and hear Susan's stories about taking this class here and doing that activity there.

We ended the hot afternoon at our house, hosting guests! First Susan's classmate and dear high school friend Michelle B. and her husband and their two sons stopped by to see the house and sit on the veranda with a cold drink to visit. Shortly after they left, Susan's high school classmate and church confirmation classmate Blake T. and his wife stopped by for a brief visit, too. Having seen and visited with all the people whom she cared about "reuniting" with at this weekend's festivities, Susan was content not to attend the final social, also at Liquid Assets tonight. So we're not going.

These reunions can be exhausting! Maybe it's just because we're getting old . . . after all, it has been 20 years since high school graduation. We'd better rub some liniment onto our lumbago, drink a tall glass of Metamucil, and turn in early!

If you visit the Mobergs, you have to pose for a photo before you leave! Here's Michelle B. again with her husband, Brad, and their two sons.

Here's Blake T. with his wife, Tammy.