For tomorrow is the long-anticipated social event of the season –drumroll please- the elementary school Holiday Fair. This year’s extravaganza was coordinated by yours truly, not because I wanted to, but because I foolishly gave a rousing pep talk to the other beleaguered PTO moms when it looked like the fair wasn’t going to happen this year.
The climate in PTO this year has been one in which merely making eye contact with another person is taken as a sign of long-term commitment. So I should have known what I was getting into. It’s not anyone’s fault; most of us have been around for a few years and are (1) older, (2) busier, and (3) just plain tired-er than we used to be.
Fortunately, all I really had to do was send out a lot of emails and put like-minded people in touch with one another. These ladies are conditioned by years of hard labor selling cookies and assembling raffle baskets. They've frosted a cupcake or two – if you know what I mean. They know their stuff. I am proud to work alongside them.
This will be my third year handling the kids make it and take it crafts room. The first year, a friend and I proposed the activity as an alternative to the “holiday store” where kids bought junky things for their parents. With the craft room, kids make junky things for their parents. See the difference?
Anyway, the craft room has been a hit. The picture above is the board showing some of the items that are available to make. Kids are busy and happy and lovely crafty times are had by all. About half of the items are Oriental Trading-type kits (yes, lots of the dreaded foam) but about half are kits designed and assembled by a few of us moms – pop-up cards, wood frames, felt ornaments, etc.
One year a woman thanked me because her husband had recently lost his job and she was thrilled to be able to have the kids make gifts for their teachers and grandparents for just a dollar apiece. And I get a real thrill being part of a community event – especially one that involves craftiness and happy people. And my kids think I am the greatest mom ever because they get to hang out after school and run wild with the other kids whose moms are there setting up - at every event, same moms, same kids.
I left work at 3 pm today and helped set up the school gym until 7 pm. I will work the whole fair (3 hours) and clean up afterward. By this time tomorrow it will be all over and everything will be packed away in the PTO closet until next year. With any luck, I will have won a big raffle basket (I’m putting all my tickets in for the knitting basket I donated – go figure) and will be relaxing with a video and some knitting.
Speaking of knitting – I had a KUO setback. The top half of hat #4 has been ripped out and reknit THREE times!!! I am very frustrated. I have this idea that I will finish this hat tonight and then knit a fifth tomorrow, but...maybe I need to drink a fifth of something instead.
Random woman’s health update: had my first mammogram at 7 am today and....surprisingly, it wasn’t nearly as awful as I expected :) And I think this is my longest post EVER!!
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