THE FIRST DAY OF THE POSADA

I woke up this morning to severe pain in my fingers. It was Coconut telling me she was ready for me to be up. She still has very sharp puppy teeth. And Carl was by my bed, with one paw on it, asking if he could get in bed too, if I wasn't going to get up. So I got up. It was a little later than usual and my two 'alarm clocks' knew it. So I got up at 8:30 and started in with ironing. I had two costumes to iron (Mary and a shepherd), and while I was at it, ironed a shirt and Carl's 4th of July collar cover...which I just recently took off of him when I put his Christmas one on him.
I'm exhausted this evening. Andrew called and I went to Beeville and picked him up so he could help with some chores around here and earn some extra Christmas money. He brought Buddha with him, too. We went to McDonald's drive-through for brunch (Narnia scenes and characters in the Happy Meals!)
He got some things picked up from the front yard - a folding work table thing, empty flower pots, and who knows what else. Then he cleaned off the back porch, and I couldn't believe the difference. He moved a ton of stuff to the shed/old horse stable. He even washed the porch and got rid of another ton of stuff, including the leftover roofing materials that have been in the way since summer. He took the box of newly washed scarecrow-wear up to the attic for me, then installed new curtain rods on the living/dining room windows. (To stave off boredom, I decided to pick this time to sew curtains for the three large living/dining room windows.)
I spent my time keeping the dogs happy. Buddha is just so happy to see Carl and Coconut, but he is so boisterous, strong and rough that Coconut is afraid of him, and Carl...well Carl doesn't like him on general principle. But they all three DID manage to play together today. Of course Coconut would only play while sitting in my lap. And then Buddha ended up in my lap too, so I had that jumping, biting and bouncing right in my face. And then Carl, souring on the idea of Buddha being on my lap, had to crawl up too. So for a while, I had all three of them in my lap. It's a wonder the chair springs didn't break. Carl is BIG, and while Buddha isn't too, too big yet, he is solid muscle and so, VERY heavy.
I got the tulle cut into equal pieces and then fluffed and gathered (with fishing line! Much quicker and easier than needle and thread!) to use as part of the Christmas program scenery, and gathered up all kinds of things from here that need to go with me to the hall tomorrow to be used there for or in preparation for the program. Also in the car are the things needed when I go to Posada each day - Mary and Joseph costumes, the booklets, etc. And loaded some things in there for Goodwill, too. So my house is a little emptier, but my van is stuffed.
I got the beginnings of another art piece base-painted, the broken reindeer leg hot-glued again to the Santa, sleigh and reindeer set...and Santa re-glued to his seat. Got one (1) gift wrapped and put in the box for Baghdad. Now to get the rest of the stuff packed in boxes and sent...
Reagan had called this morning and asked me to pick Zach up from school if he, Amy and Mathieu didn't get back from Corpus in time. So I went down there at 3pm, taking Coconut with me, got a good parking spot, and read a little bit of my Frida Kahlo book while waiting for the bell.
Back home, he helped Andrew for awhile, then got on the computer, while Andrew and I finished up various projects. When I realized it was getting kind of late, we had to hurry, because I had to get him back to Beeville, come back here and rush to the Posada by 7pm. I had hoped we would have time to go to the parish hall, so he could help me with the scenery and moving stuff around. And I wanted him to take a load of heavy stuff into the Goodwill Store for me, but it was closed by then anyway. We went through Whataburger's window for dinner. After Zach and I dropped Andrew and Buddha off, and got his stuff in the house, I realized that I had left my freshly base-coated art piece at home, outside. It was sprinkling in Beeville, but not in Skidmore, so I got it moved safely in the house. Then we had time to feed the cats before rushing over to Mrs. Martinez's for tonight's posada.
It went really well, and everyone had an enjoyable time. The photo above is of the three children there - Maria (who played the part of Mary), Zachary and Salvador (who played the part of Joseph). There were about 18-20 people there for tonight. Afterwards I took Zachary home, and went in to see Mathieu for a few minutes.