Lucia at school, part one

So there's this passage in the novel Sight Hound, by Pam Houston, where the man whom the main character marries is describing their first date. He's an actor, and he's a little crazy, and she's a playwright, and she's a little needy, and they turn out to be perfect for each other. He says "I guess you won't be surprised when I tell you that ours was not the run-of-the-mill first date. There was the reading of poetry, for instance, on her part, and there was my performance of Freakus Discus, the one-man show I wrote about the second coming of the God of Disco, and I did it up for her at her apartment as if it were a stage performance, the platform shoes, the 'fro and fake chest hair, the mirror ball I keep in my car for just such an occasion; she got the works."

I felt a little like this guy when I started packing up my stuff to do a cute Santa Lucia presentation at Peter's preschool. It involved two different battery-operated props (one wand, one crown), a gown with sash, a huge pointed hat, a book to read and more to show pictures from, a CD, gingersnaps, coloring sheets, a tray, napkins hand-stamped with a cute image of Lucia handing out baked goods... you get the picture. But it went well, the music was good, the costumes were well-received, the ginger snaps not so much, and they all wanted to take their napkins home to their mamas.