Pride & Prejudice Overload

I finished sewing the dresses for Larisa, who is playing Lydia in P&P, in the nick of time. The lame pattern had these cute, inefficient draw strings at the neck and the empire waist…. that just produced a gaping hole with white skin showing on the back.  So I sewed the cord in place, chopped it off and put in a zipper.  Whew.  No ivory skin beaming forth.   I also made a green gown that had four handmade roses on it… which were also finished the night before the show.  WHEW, again.  The cute lavender dress kept blowing open in the back because the snaps and hooks wouldn’t hold up to Larisa’s flamboyant movements.  So I added some hooks and the squeezed them all tight with pliers…. and the dress stayed shut… but was very difficult to get off!

There is some sort of anti-family-photo regulation with the shows, so only the staff photographer can take any pictures.  So we’ll have to wait for those, which are always fabulous, by the way.  I just hate waiting.  AND I forgot my camera for before and after the shows… so I have no pictures.  But, alas, another dad posted pictures on facebook and I lifted one so you could see just the top of the cute lavender dress:

This is post-production hair that has been flattened by matching bonnets, by the way.  And that is Matt, aka Mr. Darcy…. and Hannah, aka Kitty, in the background.

So the Friday night show was a packed house and they had to bring in more chairs.  With such a lively crowd, the cast was also lively and the show was fantastic, if I do say so myself.  Larisa’s portrayed the giggly 16-year-old, Lydia, who runs away with Mr. Wickham…. the floozy.  But I must say, she portrayed her quite vivaciously and was the true comedy relief of the show…. bouncing, smiling, fluttering, primping, swaying, flirting, and on and on.  Makes a mama proud…. well, her ACTING ability…. not the floozy part.  :o)

Christmas Favorites

Somewhere along this getting ready for Christmas journey I came across four questions to ask each family member.  Questions that make each of us stop and really THINK!  The point was to make sure we hit on a fav of each person to keep that memory alive for them.  Here are the questions I asked each of my kids, my husband and myself:  (OK, of course they couldn’t just answer the questions.  They had to ask me questions about why I’m asking questions.  Questions like: Are you going to use this in a talk?  Why do you want to know?  Are you asking the other kids?  What’s this for???  Sheesh, like I’m the gestapo or something.)

1.  What is your favorite Christmas food? This particular question brought on answers to make you salivate…. Nanaimo Bars, Grandma’s Spritz cookies, Auntie Julie’s sweet potatoes, stuffing and gravy, etc.  Pretty standard answers, if you ask me… and easy to duplicate (with just a few phone calls…. hint, hint, Grandma!)

2.  What is your favorite Christmas song?  Sadly, Elvis hit the list of 2 of 5 household members…. Blue Christmas.  Good grief.  That’s a sad song.  Thanks to my mother, we have a dancing Elvis statue in his gold  suit with Elvis strumming the guitar to “I’ll have a bluuuuue Christmas without yoooooou.”  I’m embarrassed to report that it was the first Christmas song Keeve could sing.  Not too many traditional songs made the list as we tend to listen to Christmas albums of contemporary artists, like Mariah Carey (All I Want for Christmas is You), Harry Connick Jr. (A Happy Ho Ho Ho to You), Steve Tyrell (Winter Wonderland), Go Fish (It’s About the Cross) and yes, Elvis.  Here is our favorite from Go Fish that includes a comedian:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAckfn8yiAQ . 

3.  What is your favorite Christmas activity?  This was a great idea to ask because I had no clue about a few of the things my kids came up with: watching It’s a Wonderful Life together as a family while drinking hot cocoa, carolling, playing games, seeing all the ornaments from our trips, baking goodies and sitting in the dark looking at the lit up tree.

4.  What is your favorite Christmas memory?  Of all my question asking surprises, this one won.  All five of us mentioned one or both of these times:  our family Christmas in Flagstaff and the Christmas we delivered gifts to a family in need.  The Flagstaff Christmas is worthy of its own blog… in the next few days, I promise.  And the gift giving one is here:  https://mysistersjar.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/5-from-my-sisters-jar/  

We spent this evening telling good-ol’-family-stories… that only THIS family could possibly laugh at.  Those including calls to 911, paramedics, trips to the hospital, surgeries, hallucinations after anesthesia, barfing from the top bunk, Great Grandma killing a bird, etc.  SEE! Only THIS family!   What fun!  Make some family memories this season of Jesus’ birth.