Split Celebrations

Last night I had dinner with a group of women with whom I share an interest other than children, although I know two of these women from Girl Scouts. We are all rubber stamping enthusiastics and we get together once a month to share ideas and techniques that we've learned. We're quite an eclectic group and range in age from under-40 to great-grandmother. For the last three years, in lieu of a December meeting, we meet for dinner and a gift exchange.

We talked about families and the silly things that have happened over the month. The gift exchange involved a "Right/Left" story (pass the gift to the right every time you hear the word "right"; to the left every time you hear "left"), that had us laughing and joking. And, in my case, spilling a glass of water on what was, ultimately, my present.

Meanwhile, Hubs and three of kids were at the Boy Scout Troop Court of Honor and gift exchange. Somehow, they brought back a plateful of cookies.

"Everyone asked where you were," Hubs said. "I had to tell them you were at another party. Do you know there are parents there who've never seen you? They think I do this all by myself!"

"Well, then, you should be getting all kinds of sympathy points," I replied.

"You think?" Hubs said. He was kind of pleased to hear that.

Tonight is the last of the parties, until Christmas Eve. Next week should be much calmer. We've got A Christmas Story ("You'll shoot your eye out!") and Scrooged and, of course, White Christmas recorded on the DVR. I've got presents to wrap and a couple to assemble, packages to be mailed (we celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas--a noble tradition!), food to buy. But no homework, no finals, no meetings. I'm actually looking forward to it!