Memories and Thank You

I am planning the Girl Scout Leader/Daughter holiday party and I couldn't think of any good games besides Name Bingo, so I thought I'd tell a story, but it can't be a Christmas story because we have all faiths (and have received complaints in the past) and we'll have all ages. So I thought I'd tell the story of my favorite camping trip as a girl and how I had hated having my mother be the leader. I had my two best friends going on the trip and everyone else loved having my Mother as their leader. I thought they were nuts. She was always yelling at me and never any fun that I ever saw, but they all seemed to adore her. Well she invited my favorite adult on the planet on the camping trip--Joscelyn. Joscelyn was so cool. She was a nightclub singer and she seemed so young and hip to me (I think I was about 12 or 13). The first thing we did was make a snowman--Joscelyn dressed it up so cute and made it really fun, even though it was old snow and raining a little. Later she sang "Oh Holy Night" giving me goosebumps and cementing that song as my favorite Christmas carol ever. The next day it was raining and the leaders cleared out the hall of tables and chairs and we jumped rope for hours--it was so much fun. I can't remember Mom too much from that trip, except that she said the leaders would sleep in a separate room (leaving us older girls to stay up as late as we wanted, so I remember being excited about those arrangements). It was long ago and my current memories of Cadettes with Mom as the leader are all good--we did a lot of stuff-backpacking, lots of camping, Mystery Trip to Toronto, pottery--just lots of stuff. When I get compliments as a leader or for working with kids, I don't have to look very far for the examples I learned from (even as an adult--nickle dice is a hands down favorite troop game). Thanks Mom.

Hmmm. Maybe we'll play nickle dice.