Reindeer hats and liturgical dance.

I wouldn't call the craft sale last weekend a home run...but it wasn't a total bust, either.  It was really well-organized, considering the high schoolers (and let's be honest, their parents) who put it together did so in less than a month.  The room was big, there was a nice mix of vendors, there was food and gift-wrapping and a guy wandering around in a Santa costume...if it suffered from anything, I'd say it was a lack of advertising.  Because man alive, did it ever get slow after the first hour or two.

But I did sell a few things, and went home with less stuff than I'd brought.  That was really the only goal I had going in, so from that standpoint, it was successful.  And hey -- it's not like yarn goes bad, so I can always put away the (fifteen leftover) reindeer hats and try again next year.

(Elizabeth, barely visible behind the giant pile of quilts and towels she & her mom made.)

Plus, it was fun just being there.  Particularly when things got super-slow in the afternoon, and the head organizer lady turned into the craft sale equivalent of the Unsinkable Molly Brown.  Seriously, she was like something out of a Christopher Guest mockumentary.  Her optimism was hilarious, especially when she'd get on the loudspeaker for announcements.

"Hey, laaaaaaaydies!  How's it going out there on the sales floor?  Cha-CHING, am I right?"
- at a moment when there were literally, like, two shoppers in the entire room

"Good news -- there's no line for pictures with Santa right now!"
- yeah, no shoppers = no line

Unsinkable: "The raffle winner is...Sue Kapowski!  Sue, come on up and get your prize!....*long pause* Sue?  Sue, where are you?" 
Random vendor:  "She was here about four hours ago."
Unsinkable: "Well, too bad for Sue, then, because you must be present to win!  Let's draw another name!" 
- and she literally had to draw about a dozen more names before she got one that was still there, and of course it was a vendor

Seriously, the raffle and door prize drawings took so long, and went to so many vendors, that it would've been way more efficient to just put all the prizes on a cart and go from table to table, letting the vendors just pick out whatever they wanted.

But still:  it was fun.  Thank goodness Elizabeth was there, though, because I would've lost my marbles if I hadn't had anyone to talk to.  Or to perform mock liturgical dances with while they had super-schmaltzy Christmas music playing.

(My favorite liturgical dance, plus an homage.  You're welcome.)