4 Down, 5 to Go Unless you count family

I have been to three Christmas parties in four days. The first one was PTSA. That's the crowd I know the least and I sat at a table with people I don't know very well. I'm thinking, good chance to meet new people, practice my people pleasing and listening skills. Not so much. No smiles at my stories and no conversation offered. At one point I reached for my sudoku that I keep in my purse, but since no one else at the table was talking much, I wasn't sure I could pull off being that rude. I'm very wimpish at being rude. Later I socialized with the folks I know better and that was fun and then I heard some really juicy gossip. Why is it so much fun to hear really juicy gossip, but it is.

Then the next night I went to Toastmaster's Christmas party. Now this is my kind of crowd--people who want to better their speaking skills and look at a party to sharpen said skills. I hung around the most challenging groups and I was very confident that my Roches story was going to be a big hit. Then I messed it up--midway through the story I forgot the premise I had started with. That's the problem with having too much material and being in love with all of it. Rookie mistake. My listeners were kind and didn't boo when my story ended completely off the point I had been going for. Luckily, my competition was an off the wall crazy guy who was trying to convince us that the mob controlled politics. He said well you know that Marty so and so controls such and such. And we said, who? He then went off about some business he used to run. It was very hard to follow. Nothing like being in a crowd where the bar is set really low. In that group we had a gift exchange. At one point I had a book I really liked, but it got stolen. The gift that I brought was something I would have liked to keep, but it went to someone who thought it was a gag gift. Oh well.

Yesterday at lunch was the Jefferson Christmas party. Each year our Kiwanis club has a party for selected underprivileged elementary school children. We get McDonald's for lunch and give them presents. We sing Christmas carols and Santa pays a visit. The party is located right across the street from my house, so I went and picked up Caitlyn to take her with me to the party. That is a very heavy girl after five minutes. I was only planning on staying a few minutes with Caitlyn, but the kids enjoyed meeting a baby (even if she never smiled being in a room full of strangers--go figure). Then none of the Kiwanians knew the lyrics to the Christmas Carols. I couldn't leave. Finally Santa came and I smoothed over a few ruffled feathers when a kid opened his present and didn't like it. By this time Caitlyn had figured out how to take off her socks, while I was holding her. I had to leave. The kids were so great--that's hands down my favorite Christmas party each year.

Last night I had ABWA. I love those gals. Every one feels like my best friend. I look forward to that party every year. This year I had some bad news before I went, so I looked for a quiet corner and didn't do my job at being the life of the party at the beginning. They love me anyway. I was having a benign conversation with Barb and telling her about taking Cait to the Christmas party and she started telling me about someone. I said, is that your grandson, No she said, kind of hurt, that's her son. I didn't know the name of her son. Here I just assume that everyone knows the names of everyone in my family and I looked around the room and realized that I didn't know the names of any of their children or grandchildren. It's not really surprising--I see these folks once a month, but still. Later on we were singing Christmas carols. We had the words printed out for us. Lynn is very well organized. We sang just awful--it was painful to my ears. At one point I yelled out, we better not quit our day jobs and that got a great laugh. My job was complete. Happy, happy crowd.

So today is Soroptomist--my say hello to crowd, then my class--I'm giving them candy, so it's bound to be fun, then tomorrow is the Office party at one of my favorite restaurants--yummy, then next Monday is Girl Scouts--I may skip that one--they usually go to a Mexican restaurant and as hard as I try there is nothing I will eat at a Mexican restraint. Finally, Kiwanis next Wednesday at another favorite restaurant. This year is shaping up pretty well.

And then, I get Jackson and Erika for Christmas. Talk about icing on the Cake. Yummy.