Mistletoe Ball, 0, Merrilee 1

I know that it has been an exceedingly long time since I've posted last but last week was a madhouse! On Saturday we had our 26th annual (I've only helped with 2) Mistletoe Ball which is a lovely holiday ball where people can either wear evening wear or period clothes. It's the only event I've been to where men wear tuxes on purpose outside of prom and/or weddings:) The evening went very well except for the weather which decided not to cooperate with us. Snow, sleet, and freezing rain in that order. Lovely. But of our 200 people, only about 20 didn't show up (and the tickets are not refundable so the money is ours, sucker) But at some point last week I went from being fun museum person to overstressed event planner. There's just one million last minute details that you can't forget or the evening will be ruined, ruined, I tell you. If you've ever gotten married or hosted a large party or planned a special event at work, then you know what I mean. Although we did realize on Friday afternoon that we didn't have napkins which would have been a BIG PROBLEM. Anyhow, it all worked, I took a three hour nap on Sunday and now I'm a fun museum person again. Whew.

As for clothing, I finished my dress (hand claps all around) And it didn't fall apart when I put it on. (more hand claps and hooting all around.) And there is only two safety pins in it. Good for me. I'm actually pretty proud of myself because this is the first dress that I've made by myself plus some important consult work from Mom and Leah and subsequent assistance in hemming the robe.

Here is Matt and I at the dance. I hate this picture of me because I look very surprised by the camera and like I've been in some horrible chopping accident with all of my fingers gone. Matt, as always, looks pretty good. Even though I've seen better pictures of him (don't tell him I said that). My dress had a slight train which everyone kept stepping on, myself included. There is a reason that later dance dresses didn't have trains. I don't recommend trying quick-step with a train. To be honest, I don't actually know how to "quick-step" but it's a faster type dance, right? Then that's kinda what we were doing.....

Oldey-timey dress gossip: Oh my gosh, some of the dresses Saturday were, well, interesting. Two ladies switched wigs half-way through the night, which was pretty funny. One was blond and the other brunette, then it was the other way around. It was still fun.

Last night I set up the Christmas tree and said something that I thought I would never have to say: "Gus, don't eat the manger." Apparently it smelled tasty and needed to be nibbled on to be certain. It could have been worse: "Gus, don't eat Baby Jesus" How to explain that........

And now I promise to be more diligent in posting because it's 362 days until our next ball and 9 weeks until our next special event but that one is all on-line so no worries about napkins and dance cards......