Kids of a Feather

Got such a quick start today, I barely had the time to write in my offline journal, eat breakfast, and hurry downstairs. Though it was only lightly showering when I finished eating, it was wet and cold enough for me to call Uber. They arrived in 6 minutes, getting me to work with literally no time to spare.

Work was much quieter than it has been. Everyone must be waiting for the weekend to do their Thanksgiving shopping. The ongoing light showers probably didn't help there, either. Though the wind was gone, it remained cloudy and cold, even after the rain finally ended around 11:30. Other than that, there were no major problems. It didn't even take me that long to gather carts. The Uber driver going home barely took four minutes to arrive.

Once I got home, I hurried upstairs, changed, and watched The Care Bears Nutcracker Suite while eating a chicken sandwich and dried fruit for lunch. A woman in charge of a ballet class putting on The Nutcracker tells the story of how the Care Bears helped a young girl named Anna whose best friend had just moved away. As she laments her lack of friends and her brother Michael complains about wanting an adventure, a Rat King and a human-sized Nutcracker suddenly appear in her home! Anna, Michael, and the Care Bears and Cousins go on a trip through Toyland to help the Nutcracker save the Sugar Plum Fairy from the evil Vizier. Meanwhile, Michael helps cubs Hugs and Tugs find their own special ornament for the Care-a-Lot tree.

Hurried off to the Thomas Sharp School before the cartoon even ended. Though the rain was long gone at that point, the playground was still too wet to go outside. Needless to say, the kids were inside the entire time. As we did last month with the skeleton Q-Tip bone hands, we traced the kids' hands on construction paper. This time, they would cover them with colorful feathers and googly eyes and turn their hand prints into turkeys. At least, that was the general idea. More feathers ended up on the floor than on the construction paper...and at one point, some of the kids ended up under the table with them before we coaxed them out with the feathers.

The older kids had been moved to the library to do a more complicated project, as I discovered when a teacher had to go home early and the teacher in charge of the big kids asked me to help her clean up the mess. The kids were supposed to be making houses out of popsicle sticks. Some of them did make the outlines of houses, but mostly, they were slabs of piled popsicle sticks, marker, and way too much glue. It took forever to clean up the library because of the massive amounts of glue all over the tables. I saw one of the girls trying to wash the glue out of her shirt when I was helping one of the pre-schoolers in the bathroom. 

Though one of the teachers was trying to read to the kids when we came back to the bathroom, we quickly came to the conclusion that the kids would rather play with blocks and magnetic tiles. That got even noisier once the older kids came in. Two of the older boys in particular really made a mess with the Duplos, and a few more kept throwing tiles at towering tile buildings, knocking them down and sending tiles scattering everywhere. I stayed later to help deal with them.

Finished the Care Bears when I got home, then watched Match Game '76. Ed Asner made his debut on the show in the last episode of the night. He discussed the miniseries Roots, which indeed, would not only be bigger than his previous miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man, would wind up being one of the biggest TV blockbusters of all time.

Put my new jeans in the washer, then worked on The WENN Nutcracker Suite. Enid, the youngest Snowflake Fairy, no sooner explains how the Snowflake Fairies were attacked by mice troops and bats than suddenly, bats swoop down over them! They try to make off with the toys and Betty, but the Nutcracker defends Betty, and the toys manage to free themselves. Betty finally gets one of the bats to tell them that the Mouse King has Hilary trapped in his furnace and turned Jeff into a dancing doll on a music box and gave it away. Mr. Eldridge takes them down a path through the woods to the home of his friend Mother Gertie Ginger to recover and repair the Nutcracker's broken arm.

Finished the night with the Disney Babes In Toyland from 1961. I went further into this version of the venerable early 20th century operetta at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog back in November 2018.

Babes In Toyland (1961)