MUJER Project

Last year, while I was off in the Alps living the dream, climbing mountains, cooking 5 gallons of spaghetti sauce at a time and generally enjoying myself, my Girl Scouts helped another Girl Scout Troop with a Christmas project. These other Girl Scouts had been hosting an annual Christmas Party for the clients of an organization that helps families with education and support to prevent domestic violence and other horrible stuff (www.mujerfla.org) since they were 1st grade Brownies. They graduated from high school last year, which left the Christmas Party with no organizer this year. So, it seemed natural for my troop to take it on this year. The moms who helped with the party last year said "oh, it's a lot of work..." But I said "We can make it happen" And we did. (Because in case anyone is keeping track, my scouts [and their parents] Rock).

Here's how it went:

First, gifts came by the mini van load to the Scout house from all the people who had been collecting them for the past month. We were lucky enough to be able to use the collecting network that had been established by the previous Girl Scout troop over the years.

Then we started wrapping.....

And sorting...and piling...
And six hours later, we were done.
I had a list, and checked it twice.
The next weekend we headed down south to set up a park for our party.

We got out the presents.
And decorated the pavilion.
And waited for the kids to show up.


Remember the Hip Hop Hulers? That's right. I still got it.
Santa Arrived!
He had toys for every kid.
With new toys in tow, everyone got a bite to eat--thanks to the hard work of another troop that was helping us out.
A ceremonial beating of an effigy followed lunch. Then, families picked up another bag of presents to take home for Christmas day and homemade bread (yet another troop handled that) and a special gift for all the moms (my Seniors pulled that off)


At the end of the day: everyone was happy, the directors of MUJER had only positive feedback for us, and I was so glad to be done. I'm looking forward to next year...I've got some new ideas to make it even better (since now I've actually been to one of the parties).

my tree

Check out my tree. I made it.

South Beach

South Beach is the number one tourist attraction in Miami, so naturally we took Ruthie there too. We went on Thanksgiving morning. [[I'm too tired right now to write anything more than...that...Today was the MUJER Christmas party. Stay tuned for more info on that and why I'm tired! But beach pictures really don't need much in the way of narration, so just follow along folks, I hope this makes you just a little bit jealous]]

It was kind of a cloudy day, but that didn't stop us...

Mini. Ghetto. Sea World

Ruth read somewhere that the Sea.quarium was the second most popular thing to do in Miami, after South Beach. We decided to do both (Beach Pictures coming soon!).

The sea.quarium is right next door to RSMAS and it is cheezy and crappy and costs a thousand dollars *or like $35 a head* to get in. Luckily, they have some sort of deal with RSMAS and we get in free--because I guess they know that we're the type who would NEVER pay to see what they have.

We had a nice time. Even though we missed the shark feeding (they did it early, while we were talking to the manatees), and the sea lion feeding (we were too late).





Oh boy. Killer whale and dolphin show.

That killer whale is in too small of a tank. It is really sad.

Thanksgiving

Ruth's visit included Thanksgiving. Since it's an American holiday, she wanted to make sure she got all the traditions correct. I said to her "Now Ruth, it's traditional for the guest at dinner to bring the host an elaborate and expensive gift, but it's considered rude for the host to give the guest any gifts. It's also considered very rude for the host to do any cooking on the day of Thanksgiving".

No, it actually happened like this: I sent her a link to a kids website that described Thanksgiving traditions and she must have really taken the task of understanding our culture to heart because when we had started getting ready for dinner she was first to get out the construction paper and start making hand-turkeys and pilgrim hats. Unfortunately we didn't have any TV to watch and we skipped the naps, and we didn't have an actual turkey: only a Tofu-rkey. I guess you could say her experience was only marginally-traditional, unless the only traditions that count are the ones that have people who like each other eating a dinner together. In that case, we were right on the money.



She didn't want to wear it, but we made her.
Just like old times.
This took Ruth 2 hours to make. It was exhausting for her, but totally worth the effort. His name is Kenton and he lives on my kitchen table.
Granite had a feast too.
Ruth was extremely troubled by this cranberry sauce...
Carving the Tofu-rkey.
Yummmm! No bones!