I love Christmas time!

So Laura is having a baby boy and a woman threw up all over Rebekah on a bus. I don't think I can top either of these blogs. So..what have I been up to lately? I had a nice, rather uneventful weekend. But I did spend a lot of time with these two kids. Blair age 9 and Lorelei age 7. They are the children of the executive director of South Louisville Community Ministries (SLCM), where two of my housemates work and is right underneath us. This family also goes to the church most of us have been attending (Jeff Street Baptist Community at Liberty...in case you wanted its full name). On Friday night we were all invited to SLCM's staff Christmas party at Ryan's. Mike (the executive director) graciously paid for all our meals. Blair and Lorelei sat at our table and we played many exciting games of telephone. On Saturday evening we attended our first "goatwalker" at Jeff St. Basically the church is set up like a coffee house. Waiters serve coffee and dessert (Blair was our waiter) and there is an open mic for people to go up and sing, play guitar, read poetry, etc. Along with church memebers, some homeless people from the area attend. There was a variety of performances that night and it was a good time. I promised Lorelei I would bring my tap shoes if she brought hers, and we ended up performing a tap routine that we made up ten minutes before we went on stage. It was cute. Then after seeing them at church on Sunday, both Blair and Lorelei wandered up to our apartment that afternoon while their dad was working downstairs. We entertained them for a couple of hours. They convinced me to eat some of those Harry Potter every flavor jelly beans - I had banana, black pepper, and grass - which all tasted like their name. The pepper was the worst. Katie had vomit, but I refused to try this one, although they were trying to convince me it was "tootie frutie". So that was my weekend. Blair and Lorelei are fun kids, although it is impossible to get a normal picture of them. Their mom joked with me at church that they should warn future Urban Corps participants that Blair and Lorelei come as part of the package. I told her I didn't mind!

I also got all my Christmas shopping and Christmas cards done this weekend! I am looking forward to going home for the holidays. And Americana's holiday party this Friday should be fun, as well as a lot of work. I got to help shop this past Friday for more toys which was a lot of fun. We spent $900 at Target! Since I have seen all the toys and know all of the kids from the after-school program, I was designated head elf! I am going to dress up. Anyone know where I can buy a cheap elf hat and shoes? I already have a red sweater and green tights. It will be a fun job, but no doubt a little crazy. We might get up to 300 kids from the neighborhood, and I will know less than 1/3 of them! In addition to my elf job, I am also in charge of decorating one of the rooms. We are going to have several rooms designated for different holidays (i.e. Kwanzaa, Ramadan, etc.) The kids will be led through all of these different rooms where they will do an activity and hopefully learn about the holiday. The end of their trip will be the room where Santa and I will be passing out toys. I was assigned the Tet room, which is the Vietnamese New Year. I have some knowledge of this holiday from my trip to Vietnam, but I need to do a little research. I am going to visit some local Vietnamese stores tomorrow to get decorations. It should be fun. Well I will definitely update after the big party to let you know how it goes!