Party like you're.....

16? Crazy? Young again? I don't know how to end this statement.

Today, I partied. The first round was just a food fest in the department's conference room, where the food was plentiful, delicious and the chatter was light. Then it was on to party #2, one that I promised to my international students about a month ago in a fit of insanity.

Last night, it was time to put the party #2 together. What do young adults want at a party? Food and drink. I ignored their suggested beverage, quite adult and quite illegal for this group (hint: imported from Mexico with a very happy worm in each bottle!) I went to the grocery store and piled my basket high with stuff that is bad for you, with a little bit of healthy food to balance it off.

Then, I had to decide what we would do as entertainment for the party. I decided on playing a couple of paper/pencil games, one is Memory. This one serves well as an all purpose winner, because you can adapt it to baby showers, wedding showers, birthday parties, etc. You place 20-25 items on a tray, give the participants 1 minute to look at the tray, then they try to remember what was on the tray. I had to make a trip to Target to find some of the items. This group is a English as a Second Language group, who aren't fully up to speed on English words, especially since this is the first Christmas they've spent here. So I tried to find simple stuff, clearly representational of American Christmas icons.

I got up at 5:30 to fix the food for the first party. Then I needed to pack for the second party.

The day was crazy with other business interfering with the party atmosphere! Like teaching, and evaluating my teachers. And students needing to make up exams they missed. But we got it all in.

The first party passed all too fast, then it was off to partyland #2 for my students. Did I need to plan activities for them? NO! Within 2 minutes, they had the Cd player going, and all were dancing! They dragged the shy Korean boy in, took off his backpack and he was dancing within 5 minutes. Then they got the Vietnamese girl to dance, but I secretly think she was a very willing partner with the best dancer in the class. Then they got ME TO DANCE! Why, I think I found my niche! I can't get the dance right in A Christmas Carol, but give me punta music, and I'm a queen!

I got the students to break out of the dance mode long enough to eat the food I brought, then we played our memory game. That was hilarious, hectic, chaotic and so much fun! Then the adults who worked with them, and who were in attendance, read them "The Night Before Christmas".

All in all, it was a great day. I'm totally exhausted, but now I know I can dance, my students were all so appreciative, and so were my colleagues, and it was a lot of fun. I think this might have been the most fun I've had since New Years Eve 2005, celebrated in the nursing home with my honey! That is a story for another day, but the memories of today will live on and warm my heart.

P.S. Tomorrow will be spent cleaning the kitchen that looks like a tornado hit it, but it is witness to time well-spent preparing to be a hostess to some very lovely people, my students and colleagues!