Over in a Flash
Well, Christmas has pretty much come and gone. Family came in from out of state, unexpected family came by for a Christmas Day breakfast. It was mostly fun, with very few mishaps, no family spats (except the one that occurred a couple weeks ago, which is done with), and by the end of Saturday night, an only slightly hysterical two year old.
This Christmas reminded me of when I used to work as a Recreation Leader for a city park system. One of our biggest events was actually Easter, when all 7 parks hosted an egg hunt. As Rec Leaders, we would spend hours and hours cutting out hundreds of small and medium sized construction paper eggs, we had various staff meetings mapping out what was going to happen and when. I mean, this event was all we thought about for probably a month leading up to the big day.
Then, we would drag ourselves at 7am to the park to set up, desperately hoping for the coffee and donuts that the coordinator would usually supply. It took about 2 1/2 hours to set everything up. We would cordon off different areas for various age groups, set up signs, direct traffic, construct prize redemption areas, and on one particularly memorable day, a desperate, frantic search for a missing megaphone.
After all of the anticipation, the hours of long labor and preparation, the Annual Easter Eggstravaganza would be over in approximately 90 seconds. Paper eggs in hand, families would run toward the redemption area, complaining about all the free candy that wasn't enough, or why didn't we have better free plastic bunnies?
This Christmas seemed a lot like one of those egg hunts. Lots of time invested, over in a flash. I guess I need to finally realize that is what being an adult is all about. But as this is the first Christmas where my son could get a pretty good grasp on the concept, the big smiles and the "ooohs" of delight were well worth the cold I feel like I am coming down with.
This Christmas reminded me of when I used to work as a Recreation Leader for a city park system. One of our biggest events was actually Easter, when all 7 parks hosted an egg hunt. As Rec Leaders, we would spend hours and hours cutting out hundreds of small and medium sized construction paper eggs, we had various staff meetings mapping out what was going to happen and when. I mean, this event was all we thought about for probably a month leading up to the big day.
Then, we would drag ourselves at 7am to the park to set up, desperately hoping for the coffee and donuts that the coordinator would usually supply. It took about 2 1/2 hours to set everything up. We would cordon off different areas for various age groups, set up signs, direct traffic, construct prize redemption areas, and on one particularly memorable day, a desperate, frantic search for a missing megaphone.
After all of the anticipation, the hours of long labor and preparation, the Annual Easter Eggstravaganza would be over in approximately 90 seconds. Paper eggs in hand, families would run toward the redemption area, complaining about all the free candy that wasn't enough, or why didn't we have better free plastic bunnies?
This Christmas seemed a lot like one of those egg hunts. Lots of time invested, over in a flash. I guess I need to finally realize that is what being an adult is all about. But as this is the first Christmas where my son could get a pretty good grasp on the concept, the big smiles and the "ooohs" of delight were well worth the cold I feel like I am coming down with.
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