Christmas Joy

The second weekend of December always brings major festivities. We held our annual Christmas party for the PAL families on Friday night and it was a record-breaker. We had at least 200 people attend and it was definitely the best party we've ever thrown. The kids had such a great time! It made me feel so good to hear their squeals every time the roving magician I found from the Magic Castle did a trick. Or to hear them freak out each time a raffle prize was announced (thanks to some amazing donors, we had the best prizes ever this year.) On top of it all, Wells Fargo stopped by and gave us a check for $5000! Also memorable was when one of our board members grabbed my face forcefully and kissed me full on the mouth. Not once. Not twice. Thrice! I swear, he's the only board member who could get away with it because he's such a clown and believe you me, there was nothing sexual about it, if you knows what's I'm a sayin'. If you're lucky, a photo may materialize in the coming weeks...

The next morning I went into the office for the annual party/Santa Gift giveaway that the police station does for over 1000 underprivileged kids, including a group of special needs kids. It was thrilling to watch their faces as they approached Santa. Our Santa was a gruff Armenian cop with a good heart. I secretly kind of enjoyed watching the small kids who would find themselves on Santa's lap, look back at his scary breaded face and let loose screaming. That's funny stuff. After the event, Marianne and I saw Co-op's Christmas show, The Freddy Wyatt Christmas Spectacular Extravaganza Show. It was adorable - silly and feel good fare. Then we went to another show "The Amish Project", based on the shooting in the Amish schoolhouse in 2006. It was a compelling, triumphant one-woman show with extraordinary writing and an incredible performance. It was one night only because the actress was here doing a movie, but there's hope for a real run in LA. If that does happen, go see it. It's the kind of theater that makes you think and moves deeply. After that we hung out for a little while at the Act One Christmas party. I had three other parties I was invited to, but after a day of back-to-back events, it was time to go home.

On my way home from church, I stopped by the store (not my usual store) to pick up ingredients for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I was in front of the chocolate chips when a woman from my theater company whom I haven't seen in a long time walked up. She was also looking for chocolate chips. I swear, we talked for not more than 30 seconds before she shook her head and told me that she was working for a homeless ministry and the toys that had been promised to them for some homeless kids had fallen through. My jaw dropped. I told her I had three large bags of really great toys waiting in my living room that were left over from our event on Saturday and that I had been hoping to find a group that really needed them. Wow. God is cool that way. Every so often He lets us know He's there and in control.....