It has been a good week, but a busy week with something every day. Art classes, ladies luncheon, babysitting - those things are pretty normal around here. But our little church is putting on a Thanksgiving dinner for the "empty nesters." The dinner is Saturday night. Usually at the Thanksgiving dinner, there is some sort of entertainment. In the past, we have played bingo for prizes. Yeha. Toby hates that. It is a lot like the dirty Santa game where everyone brings a gift and then you get to play bingo for a gift or take someone else's gift. And as usual some of the gifts are great and some are pitiful. For some reason, I usually get the gift that makes me say, "What the heck do I do with this - like I need more junk!"
This year the entertainment for the dinner is different. One of my friends wrote a little mystery play. It is really good and will be much more fun than some old bingo game, but putting it on has been major work - fun, but work. Last night I spent four hours decorating for the play and dinner. Tonight is the final dress rehearsal. Saturday night is the dinner and play. Sunday is the cast party at MY house. Although I think this is going to be great fun when all is said and done, I am ready for it to be done.
I'd really like to tell you all about the play and show you pictures of the decorations - all awesome stuff, if I do say so myself. But we have been sworn to secrecy. This whole thing is suppose to be a big surprise. Yeah right. Is there such a thing as a "big surprise" when more than one person knows about it? At the ladies lunch thing earlier this week, one of the ladies involved in the play kept talking about it. When I told her that this was supposed to be a secret, she said, "What? I didn't tell them what it was about!" No, you told them just about everything else. Here, I had been trying to keep it totally a surprise. It reminded me of the time when I was a little girl and I bought my dad a book for Christmas. I was taunting him with how special his gift would be and how he didn't know what it was and it would be a big surprise. Somewhere in the conversation I said, "It is a great book!" My dad laughed and said, "Now I know it is a book." I felt pretty silly. If you can't keep a secret, it is best if you just don't talk about it at all.
There are some things that are just not a big deal to me. Like last night while decorating I would have probably just put a pumpkin in the center of a table and called it decorated. But no, we went all out. This play, the decorations, the preparations have been work, but I bought into my friend's idea, her play, her enthusiasm, and I want to do a good job for her. Just a few more days and this will all be over. I'm ready. Then I can start thinking about Thanksgiving with my family. Yikes.
3 comments:
The play and dinner sound great. You are so clever and work so hard.
Whatever Thanksgiving we have will be at Jennie’s this year. We aren’t going to Kentucky.
My mother was a cooking fanatic, so Thanksgiving and Christmas, were a tour de force. I usually got elected to drive her to the store that had the best ham. I had to steel myself, as it was a military operation to get just the right ham from the meat manager.
My mother was the only one I ever saw push the button in the meat section, to call out the manager. Year after year, they both haggled like Arabs in a souk.
I never see hams like that any more in grocery stores. They are all spiral-sliced compressed meat pre-cooked concoctions with fake fat. I suppose you could go to a real meat market, or a farm, but no one wants to bake a ham all day anymore, and pre-cooked is good enough.
Good luck on the play!
Jo,
The play was lots of fun. I'm so glad it is over, though.
Etienne,
My mom liked to buy a smoked ham at a specific place. In the last few years, those hams became quite expensive. Mom still bought some, but would buy a very little bit. I may buy some this year in memory of her.
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