WE DID IT!!!

My Christmas was "in the bag" so to speak...until last Wednesday, December 12. As I drove to Joplin early that morning to finish my Christmas shopping before the real crazies hit the stores, my cell phone rang. To make a long story short: my friend, Sheri, called to ask me to help with the 5th grade class Christmas party. Don't be confused. This was not to be the typical gift-exchanging-small-snack-eating-stay-in-homeroom party. Ha! This was to be the equivalent of a semi-formal, catered brunch for 37; organized, prepared and served by parents of fifth graders.

"How many parents are helping so far?" I asked.

"Well, you and I are it...so far," Sheri answered.

Gulp.

For a humorous replay of the conversation, check out Sheri's blog at http://crazybutlovinit.blogspot.com/2007/12/only-in-small-town.html

In a mere seven days we planned a five-course Mexican lunch, sent out letters to the parents BEGGING for help (OK that's a little exaggerated--a LOT exaggerated), purchased all of the necessary food and supplies (Sheri did 90% of that--I bought ten bags of red and green tortilla chips and strawberry pop--woohoo), prepared the taco meat & chopped veggies on two separate nights with the help of one other mom and several wine coolers, set up and decorated tables (couldn't-a done it without our awesome husbands), then lugged everything to the school this morning at 8:00. There we met the other women who made it all happen. Here we all are.

Well...we're obviously not all women. That's my husband, Carl, beside me. Hey Sheri--did Carl stink or something??? :)

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These are two of my favorite people in the world serving some of the fifth grade students.

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This picture is a little fuzzy, but it's the only one that shows the table before the fifth graders arrived.

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These are Katie's awesome fifth grade teachers. It's not the greatest picture, but that's entirely the fault of the photographer. And the photographer blames her camera.

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These are the fantastic fifth graders we served. Earlier this week as Sheri, Regina and I prepared food, we questioned our decision to have candles. Would the kids accidentally burn down the grade school? How much stuff would be spilled? Would they horse around? Or would they rise to the semi-formal occasion? We decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and they didn't let us down. Nothing was spilled. Nothing went up in flames. These kids behaved BEAUTIFULLY!

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We finally let them horse around.

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I included this final picture because I'm the mom & I can. Beautiful Katie.

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The clean-up is done, everyone is home and now I'm REALLY fried. I'm into the second book in The Golden Compass trilogy...I think I'll put my jammies back on, crawl back into bed and read.

To everyone involved in the fifth grade Christmas party--parents, teachers, kids, staff: HIGH FIVES, THUMBS UP & BIG HAND SLAPS! WE DID IT!!