I had an
idea for creating an array of ugly on one of my existing red sweaters. Chris was a different matter, though. All of her clothes are beautiful, of course,
and she isn’t one to go readily for “creative approaches.” But then, as I was rummaging through the hall
closet for I don’t remember what, I saw it. The perfect sweater for Chris. It was one of my Mom’s old ones. Really old ones. In true Oralee fashion, it was bright and
colorful, with just a touch of wacky.
Mom could rock those elements in a way not many could. That sweater had something embroidered on it
(or whatever that word is) for each of the twelve days of Christmas. And not your little two inches of suggestion
either. Each of these was three or four
inches tall, and played out the song perfectly.
Yep. That was my Mom. And the sweater was great for Chris as
well. It wasn’t so much ugly as it was …
bold. And as it turned out, Chris almost
won the ugly sweater contest anyway. The
hostess proclaimed, “I was going to give it to you just for the sheer vintageness
of it all.” I must say, though, the guy
who actually won deserved it. His
sweater was a mass of Christmas homage from Mexico and America and who knows
where else.
Ugly
Christmas Sweater. Now my sweater was a
little … different. It started as a
simple red sweater, thus fulfilling that part of the requirement. I still had to figure out a way to touch on
the Christmas part and ultimately the ugly part. And I had an idea. I know.
Dangerous, right? Here’s what I did. I printed off tiny little pictures of all the
fire fighters I had photos of, and cut them out. Then I arranged and pasted them onto a piece
of red paper in the shape of a fire hydrant.
Then I took all of that and pasted it onto a piece of green paper. Finally I cut out the words “Ho,” “Ho,” and “Ho”
from red paper and glued them around the photo-hydrant (there’s the Christmas
part of the challenge), then safety-pinned the whole thing onto my sweater. The ultimate challenge was met. I’m certain that somewhere in that vast array
of pictures was someone who could be construed as “ugly.” How can I be so sure? Because I included a picture of myself. I’ll have to take a picture of it and post it
on FaceBook as a brand new game called “Find the Ugly.” Kind of like “Where’s Waldo?”
The
trivia part of the party was in jeopardy when we arrived. Our incredible hostess Katy had not had time
to get anything copied. Strangely
enough, I still had quite a few copies of our own trivia challenge from our
party the night before, so I raced home (actually I drove carefully through the
misting rain) and retrieved all the copies I could find. Now we do our trivia as an icebreaker, just
for fun as people arrive. This group was
a bit more cutthroat. Katy was offering
a prize. And that proved to be a
problem. I brought no less than six
different categories of trivia so Katy could choose her favorite. Somehow, though, all of them made their way
into the crowd. We had pictures and
movie quotes and carol initials and general trivia and Christmas food quizzes
floating everywhere. And Katy then told
me that I had to be the judge, since I was the only one with the answers. And the race was on. The people actually seemed to enjoy it,
although the food challenge was dismissed readily (except by two daring
souls. More on them later). Katy announced that the official contest
would be Christmas Movie Quotes.
Whew. That made my job a little
easier. But I have to say, it was the
photos, or rather the Christmas rebus page, that drew the most interest, and
the most ire. They did fine on the
obvious ones, like Jingle Bells and Silent Night. And Andy stepped up as a master visual
interpreter to assist the eventual category winner with numerous correct
answers (Sorry, I can’t remember her name).
Of course it took a mole in the works to finally get the most vexing one
of the night. Nathan (who has
experienced the Vaughan Trivia Madness for 15 years or so) finally broke under
pressure and revealed the clue that unlocked the revelation for “Wokking in a
Winter Wonderland.” Nicole and Shorty
were recognized for their accomplishment in Sheer Volume of Work - coming up
with answers for three pages of trivia.
Not all right answers, but some answers, nonetheless. Now the actual winner of the announced event,
the Christmas movie quotes quiz, went to none other than April, and she didn’t even
get any help from her husband. Finally,
the Most Creative Approach to Quiz Taking Award had two entries. Remember the two I said attempted the food
quiz? Patrick is working right now to
get accepted into UTMB, so I should have expected some of his answers. Like the very first one: “According to
tradition, what food should you eat every day during the twelve days of
Christmas?” Patrick’s answer? NaHCO3.
The chemical formula for sodium bicarbonate … an antacid. A good answer, Patrick, but not the correct
one. As good as his answers were,
though, the winner of this category was the youngster, Andy and Katy’s son Aidan. He meticulously printed an answer to each of
the 25 or so questions. The same
answer. And then he explained his answer
on the side. His multi-used answer to
every food related question? “Jesus.” And his explanation? “Jesus is the answer to everything.” Now that’s a kid who has a handle on the
important things in life. Great answer,
Aidan.
2 Corinthians
9:8 says, “And God is able to make all
grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you
need, you will abound in every good work.”
Father,
help me remember that you are the answer for everything. Saves a lot of worrying. Amen.
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