BFFs

I recently made a booklet full of reading suggestions for youth, as part of a summer reading club for all ages. I know a few adults who read, almost exclusively, young adult books, but I can usually only handle a small dose of YA myself, so it was very interesting researching all the titles to include under different genres. We had one page titled It's My Party and it was full of books to make you cry, starting with John Green's The Fault in our Stars. I came across Nicholas Sparks' A Walk to Remember and thought that I would borrow the movie to watch with Joss on the weekend. You know, bonding time.

As it happens, she had seen it before, several times, at a friend's house, bawling every time. Now, I am into crying. I cry in emotive ads, I cry when I watch TV and I cry when I read books. Sometimes I go into the full, ugly cry. After watching Les Mis, I had to go to my room and have a big cry as tears through the movie were not enough. Joss was a mess through A Walk to Remember, but it seems that trite, formulaic writing has no power over me! I said the lines before the characters did, it was all so over the top that I felt a bit sad once, but wasn't taken in. It wasn't the bonding experience I had hoped for with Joss in floods of tears and me in floods of mocking!

While we were watching the movie, Bethany was at a friend's house. Her friend, Charis, is from the Philippines and her family were having a garage sale to raise money for the typhoon victims. Bethany took some money from her bank account and gave it to Charis' parents who told her to take whatever she wanted from the garage sale (dresses and a cushion)! We organised for Charis to come and play on Sunday, which was Estella Christmas Party day.

When we lived in our old house, the park was just at the end of our street, less than 100 meters away. That made the Christmas party especially good because you could run home for a drink or to get something to sit on. We walked over with Milo, which took about 15 minutes and I didn't bring a picnic rug or anything. There were lots of flies. I really missed the Kristovskis family! This is the last one they were at and it still isn't quite right without them.

There were still plenty of people for me to talk to, and Joss hung around with a friend, doing teenager stuff (?). Poor Toby was at a bit of a loss, but he had a slushie and a sausage sandwich before walking home. Having big kids is great, in that they can hang out with friends or just go home by themselves, but Bethany and Charis were right into the party.

Jumping castles make you hot and thirsty. Blue slushies give you blue mouths.

Waiting in the line for Santa

I had both a Christmas magic and a grinch moment at the party. Toby, Milo and I were standing in the shade while Bethany and Charis had their faces painted and my favourite Christmas Carol came on. As I listened to O Holy Night, I could see us sitting at Mum and Dad's on Christmas Eve, watching the carols on TV, everyone excited for tomorrow, with the scent of the real tree in the air. We hugged, it was lovely. Later on, I was standing with my friends and a teenaged girl was pulling the lollies that Santa gave her out of the bag and throwing them on the ground, saying that they were stale. She even threw wrapped lollies on the ground, so I went and picked them up and put them in the bin, which was just there, a fact that I pointed out to her. I wonder what she said to her friends as she walked away, rolling her eyes. Cranky old lady!