Holiday Greetings... Part 3

But as I said, Hanukkah was early. And this holiday season is long. The celebrating didn't stop after all 8 candles had been lit.

LILY...

The Combined Federal Campaign is one of the oldest and largest charitable workplace giving campaigns. Ever. Originally dreamed up by President Eisenhower (same POTUS who dreamed up my Agency!), millions and millions and millions are donated every year by federal employees. Last year I think some $17m was raised by DoD employees alone.

This year has been a rather sporty one for our campaign at work, which resulted in us raising 173% of our goal! And since I was one of the keyworkers, I was very involved. Very. And when one of the other keyworkers suggested that kids singing at Christmas would very likely be a successful fundraiser, I immediately volunteered Lily.

It was, by the way. Successful. We raised almost $3,000 for charity that day.

Poor Lily missed the one and only rehearsal because I was in meetings longer than anticipated... and given that most of the songs at this "non-denominational" concert had more to do with Santa and Frosty than they did with dreidels... Lily held her own and did pretty darn great. And although she might not admit it, I think she had fun.





ANNA...

And while it was great fun to see and hear the kids sing for such a worthy cause, we also had a blast two days later seeing and hearing the kids sing at the Holiday Open House at Anna's school.

Now, after the Thanksgiving performance of 10 Little Indians, I thought that I was prepared for just about anything. And I almost was. I ALMOST made it through Anna's impersonation of an elf without laughing. Almost... But not quite.

Although she's in the 2 year old class -- the youngest in the school -- I personally think that they were the best. They stole the show. Now don't get me wrong... the 2 1/2 year old pint sized Elvis look alikes and the 4 year old Bolivian dancers were ADORABLE. K-RAY-ZEE cute, in fact. But the little dancing Elves stole my heart. And, no, I'm not biased at all.



Not to be outdone by the kids, there were a few very special visitors.



Of course, Dora got just a little too close to comfort when we attempted to take a class photo. I've never seen so many kids look so shell shocked...and then simultaneously burst in to tears...as I did that day.




My little Hanukkah elf...