first day of Christmas break (12-15-06)

Now Playing: "Thirty-Year Retrospective" by Mark O'Connor. Track 2, "Tom and Jerry". Philip's birthday present to me--thank you for some fun music! :o)

The alarm clock went off at six o'clock this morning--so much for sleeping in at home! My room was in shambles from the night before, suitcase, box, dirty clothes, etc. scattered all over. I scrambled out of bed, threw on some clothes, and pattered downstairs. My mother and Laura were both up, too. The rest of the house was absolutely quiet. We pulled on our coats, cold in the early morning, and drove to Panera to eat breakfast with my mother's friends, the Dawn Treaders. (The women in the church here walk at six o'clock in the morning a few times a week, but today they were having mother-daughter breakfast to celebrate Christmas.)

We were a bit early, so we sat in the parking lot, waiting for the restaurant to open at six-thirty. When it did open, we sat down with Mrs. Parnell and Abigail, Mrs. Carroll and Bridget, and Mrs. Brocato and Paige. Laura, Abigail, Bridget, and Paige sat in one booth together, being incredibly silly. I sat with the mothers at a couple of tables next to the booth. The restaurant was warm and smelled slowly of freshly-baked bread and freshly-brewed coffee. Other people, mostly students with intense, frantic looks, toting laptop carriers, raced in, ordered their food, and raced off to booths to work. We ordered, too. I had a wheat bagel, oatmeal flaking off the outside, and a cup of English breakfast tea, sweet and delicate. Paige got hyper on latte and started to bounce up and down while the other girls teased her. I listened to the mothers discuss their families--plans for Christmas vacation, gift-giving, mishaps (Vinny broke his hand last night), etc.

After breakfast, we drove home, and I spent the morning holed up in my room, cleaning briskly. I listened to Prince Caspian on CD while I weeded my bookshelves, rummaged through my drawers, and cleared out my closet, in the process managing to put things away. Stephen and I were the only ones home for lunch: Philip was at MTC, and Laura was baby-sitting for Stephanie. Philip and Laura came home pretty soon, though. My mother, Laura, and I briskly changed into our dance clothes and drove to the TCS gym for dance rehearsal at one-thirty.

In the gym, everything was in confusion. The little ones were frisking about everywhere, playing with basketballs out of a hamper in the corner. Mrs. Carroll and Mrs. Parnell were wrapping gold ribbon around green headbands for the female dancers. All the dancers had on black slacks/skirts and white or black shirts, with ghillies (Irish dance shoes) or soft-soled Jazz shoes. Mrs. Hill had some difficulty organizing everyone. There was an unusually large collection of family members (very young and very old) to watch the rehearsal since families were being discouraged from coming to the nursing home where we were going to perform (the nursing home doesn't have a whole lot of audience room). Mrs. Hill launched courageously into the rehearsal.

After the rehearsal, at two forty-five, everyone caravaned over to the nursing home. I took a carload of Fishers (Elizabeth, Christa, Ben, and Greg). Christa pranced about, asking me, "Don't I look pretty? Aren't I adorable?", and practicing her leaps, while Elizabeth and I laughed at her. When we entered the nursing home, the first people I saw in the lobby where we would be dancing were Alisha and Jenny S. Having been deprived of their company for about twenty-four hours, I dropped Christa's hand and ran over to give them welcome. The lobby was filling with people--mostly the other dancers, though there was a smattering of elderly folk sitting on the pale pink couches at one side of the lobby. I called Christa and Elizabeth over to meet Jenny and Alisha. Christa hugged both of them and decided that they were her best friends.

Mrs. Hill bundled her dancers off to the hall at one end of the lobby, our "backstage" area. We sat against the walls, fidgeting and whispering. The first dance was the four-hand reel. I practiced leaps down a side hall, while one of the Fisher girls whispered a tall tale to the little ones, who were already becoming impatient with having to wait in the hall. Then the little ones marched out, each one escorted by an older "buddy", to sing "This way, that way, forward and back, over the Irish sea". Next we paired up to dance the Waves of Tory. Sarah and I were partners for this one, and "star-buddies" with Bridget and Abigail, who were, as usual, being incorrigibly flighty.

After the Waves of Tory, the little ones went out to dance the Bag Dance. Mrs. Hill played "Jingle Bells" on her accordion, and instead of a bag, the little ones used a round of bells. As Mrs. Hill played, those of us standing in the hall started to sing along, a chorus of children's voices piping blithely to the jouncing accordion, hands clapping to keep time. It was neat to see the impromptu party blossom--dancing, instrumental, and voices perfectly together. Next came an ensemble consisting of a couple of flutes, Mrs. Hill on accordion, Laura on violin, and Anna on viola. They played Christmas carols, slightly out-of-tune. The dance after that was the Bridge of Athlone. My mother was my partner for this one. The dance was fun--back and forth, pairing off, making the bridge, standing on tiptoe to let Bridget cross underneath, the little ones giggling as they tried to make their arches as large as possible for her.

After the Bridge of Athlone came the Walls of Limerick. Everyone danced this one. Ben was my partner, and he did a good job, especially guiding me through the swing at the end of the set, which I never can get right. The jump-sevens parts are the most fun. After the Walls of Limerick came the Fairy Reel. All the little ones crowded at the mouth of the hall to watch. Sarah and Sarah K. managed to piece our set together before we went onstage--Ruth, Dani, Sarah, Sarah K., Paige, and me. The Fairy Reel is one of my favorite dances.

After the Fairy Reel, we danced the two-hand reel. There were three groups since there wasn't enough room for all seven pairs to dance at once. Laura and I were in the third group. We danced into the lobby and went through the reel, lead-around, point, leap, jump sevens, up and down, spin, lead around, and then back into the hallway, where we seamlessly took up our positions in line with the other pairs. Mrs. Hill thought up a neat twist to end the recital: everyone who'd danced the two-hand danced into the lobby together in a line, and, holding hands in a long line, did the point-two-threes, and ended with a leap.

Then all the little ones came out, and we stood in two long lines to sing a very childish "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", pitched high. I was very hot and sweaty, and had some trouble keeping Christa contained since she was high-strung and confused from all the dancing.

After the song ended, and we all bowed politely, everyone went off to the reception to eat cookies. Jenny and Alisha came over to talk with Laura, my mother, and me. Jenny joked about the shopping-cart disco. Alisha talked about coming to visit on Monday for the evening. At four o'clock, my mother had to take Laura to basketball practice. Jenny and Alisha lingered for a little while, then walked with me to my car. It was hard to say good-bye to them. The car parked next to mine was a huge SUV, and just as we came up, a little boy was scrambling into it. "Look at that kid! Wow! Talk about a gas-guzzler!" Jenny said, "But they're making me money." I grinned. "I'll buy an SUV when I'm rich, and think to myself, 'I'm making Jenny money'." We stood in the parking lot for awhile, joking around. But it was time to say good-bye. I honked my horn at them as I drove away, and their laughter was accompanied by a chorus of "Good-bye!" from the younger dancers leaving the building.

I was very happy as I drove to the Fishers' house to do therapy with Christa. At the Fishers' house, I found Sarah, Rachel, and Elizabeth sitting around the dining room table, flipping through cook books and trying to decide what to cook for dessert. The parents were out to supper, so they were assigned to make supper--and the most important part of that was, of course, dessert. I later saw them in the midst of their preparations. Sarah was presiding over a skillet full of fried rice while Elizabeth and Rachel both worked on making peanut-butter-and-jelly cookies--they had more cookies than they had rice! Christa and I disappeared into the guest bedroom to do therapy. She was unusually squirrely this evening, and I had a dreadful time getting her to cooperate. She finally decided that she was going to be in the "serious club", which meant that neither one of us could laugh. Unfortunately, her serious face was so ridiculously overdone that I had a hard time not laughing myself. Through the thin door, I could hear the girls gossiping and giggling in the kitchen.

When we finally finished, at about six-fifteen, Elizabeth handed me a couple of warm cookies, for which I was extremely grateful, and I left. The sky outside was very dark, pricked with stars--more stars than I'd seen for several months. I drove to the TCS gym for Stephen's basketball game, munching the crumbly, sticky cookies on the way. At the gym, I arrived just in time for the fourth quarter. I stood on the sidelines, chatting with Logan and watching the game. Stephen's team almost won. The highschool boys sat at the back of the rows of chairs and kept up a loud ruckus to encourage their younger counterparts, clapping, yelling, and cheering outrageously. After the game, Laura went to the Gages' house for a girls' basketball team sleepover. Philip and I drove home. I ate a late supper (leftover chicken-and-dumplings), and then my father read P.G. Wodehouse to Stephen and me. Family devotions, and bed.

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