Looking back...

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me. But since I much prefer to be busy than bored, this is a good thing! Although, I must say that last Saturday was a bit overwhelming.

See, our Santa's Breakfast at the club where I direct events was Saturday, and we had more people attend than ever before. Usually, at the very most, we will have 100-120 show up. This year we had 180 in attendance - grown-ups plus children waiting to get their picture made with the Jolly Man in Red. It was sheer madness!

We had a wonderful man in the lead role this year. Bill Bucklew is part of the community theater troup in town, and he was fabulous! (So much different than last year's experience, which you can read about here.) It was the first time Bill ever played the role of Father Christmas, and he was a real trooper, even when the young ones screamed in terror, which most of them do from the ages of about 1-3 years of age. And let's face it... who can blame them? Their parents are putting them in the lap of a big, huge man dressed in a red suit and white fur! I'd scream, too, if I were too young to understand that this is a nice man who will be bringing me presents in a couple of weeks.

At any rate, the event went without a hitch, and our photographer extraordinaire, Allison Peatross of Picture This Photography, rocked!

Earlier in the week we had our Christmas Open House, which is a free party for the members. It also had a far greater attendence than in years past. My bosses asked me last year if I would sing a couple of songs for this year's shindig, so we hired Maurice Johnson and Michael Jackson (same name, but different guy. This one is still alive and doesn't moonwalk.) to play music for the party, and I sat in with them for a couple of songs. It was fun! The night went smoothly and several members have remarked to me that "This was the best one EVER!" So I will chalk it up as a success.

I capped the week off with our church choir's Christmas musical. It was awesome! I was given a solo in the program called "Broken Hallelujah," the words of which hit pretty close to home for me. So it was a blessing to be able to sing it. And I really love being a part of our choir. We range in age from late 20's to early 80's, and everyone truly cares about each other. Plus, many are fantastically funny, so choir practice is a mix of music and laughter. I'm so grateful to be part of this group of people.

This week I've been catching up with a lot of desk work - resizing pictures and uploading them to our website, filling the 2011 calendar with events, writing copy. It's mostly tedious stuff but I don't mind it, especially after a three-event week. And once I get it all finished, it will be vacation time!!! I have two whole weeks off work to rest, recuperate and spend precious time with family and friends.

It's a wonderful time of year!