Class Acts

Since yesterday was the last day of school before Christmas break, each class at our daughters’ elementary school had a holiday party to celebrate the season and, basically, get totally hyper and strung out on sugar. As the co-homeroom mother in one class and a homeroom mother helper in the other, I attended both of our girls’ parties, which fortunately were scheduled at different times.

At the last minute, my husband decided he would like to attend as well, and he was so excited about surprising our offspring with his presence – talking all the way to the classrooms about how fun it would be to see their faces light up when they saw him walk through the door. However, next time, we’ll know that we need to work a little harder on our timing and entrance.

As we got close to our youngest daughter’s class, we heard the kids saying, “Bye, Santa! Thanks for coming!”

“Hear that?” I quipped to my husband. “That’s the sound of thunder being stolen.”

Sure enough, Santa exited the room just as my husband and I entered. Let me tell you, Mr. Claus is a very tough act to follow. No one – even our own little llama – was the least bit interested in our arrival.

Then later in the afternoon, when we walked into our oldest daughter’s room, the teacher and all the kids were completely distracted since one of the little girls in the class had just thrown up moments before. The janitor had not even made his way down the hall to clean it up yet. Right after Santa Claus, vomit appears on the Top 10 List of Things That Are Hard To Compete With.

Once again, THUNDER BEING STOLEN!!!

We kid. We know that the Christmas parties are not about us and how awesome we are to set aside time in our busy schedules to do things like spend four hours punching out tiny snowflakes for a foam snowman craft and then another three hours of “herding cats” during the parties.

Bitter? Party of two?

In all seriousness, we enjoy being involved in our kids’ school and lives. And there were flattering moments. One little girl drew me a special Christmas card during the party and gave me a big hug. Another little girl developed a crush on my husband and refused to believe he was already taken, even when he introduced me as his wife. And one of the little boys in our youngest daughter’s class told her he wants to marry me – so he kept sizing up his competition and giving my husband the evil eye throughout the party.

But most importantly, we feel blessed that our children are still at the ages where they want us around. In time, they won’t run up to hug us when we walk in their classrooms; they’ll pretend they’ve never seen us before. They’ll get embarrassed if we take photographs of them or try to talk to their friends. Thank goodness pre-schoolers and first graders still think their parents are cool and want to show us off.

Even if they have to do it following Santa and vomit.