The First Communion Party

No strangers to the posh and debonair, we held YaYa's party at the same bowling alley that had played host to Smiley's birthday bash. Long ago, in ages past, it had been used for Lisa's bridal shower, and for my sister's baby shower.





Now, it was to mark YaYa and her cousin's special day.









Get a load of these cutlery sets. Plastic sure, but of sturdy stock and pre-wrapped in a linen-like paper napkin and tied with a ribbon that resembled a communion theme. 16 of them in each box, $2.99 a box.



Soon enough, the guests began to arrive.

[BTW - Lisa's Mom sewed the tablecloths in the photos.]





Here's some of Lisa's family from northern Wisconsin, who made the trip just for YaYa.









My Dad's Aunt, her children, and my sister.





My nephew. Yeah, let's not talk about the hair.



Aunt Mabel



Lisa holding my Godmother's grandchild.









YaYa and Meadow.



My Mom talking to her Godchild Judy (on the right) and her partner of many years.



One of Caitlin's friends. What a photo-conscious girl, eh?



The Devil formerly known as the Lump



YaYa's Godfather and his wife Pam



Caitlin and Faith



Tempe and Ginger



Smiley and Tempe



Dinner was delivery from Pizza Hut, both their lasagna and chicken alfredo, along with salad. It was well received.







I cut the cake and LuLu and my sister distributed it to folks.



Meanwhile, the kids kept trying to escape.



And then the party began to wind down



And LuLu began to lose it, the first but not the last of the kids to reach the breaking point.





But a little comforting/molleycoddling did wonders, for the moment at least:



A very nice First Communion party for both girls! Congratulations!

Literal Music Videos

Over at And Rightly So they posted a sample of "literal music videos" - YouTube clips that seek to reconcile the lyrics of the song with the actual, crazy activity you see on the screen.

When done right it's a blast. When done poorly it's just cra*. The best of them seem to be the product of DustoMcNeato. Let's see if you agree.

Let's introduce the idea with an oldie - The Monkees Daydream Believer.
"And then I dance like Axel Rose/In my fruity sixties clothes". Priceless!




Here's one that's just made for the format: Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart.

A thank you to Sybil

Hi, I just thought I'd pop on and post a 'live' entry in the midst of all the prerecorded stuff. Not to worry folks, just one more Communinion post before I'm through.

I do, however, want to single out Sybil for special attention. She converses (with my approval) with YaYa online, and sent her a very nice card for her Communion. You know how big of a deal it is for a kid to get mail of any kind, much less from overseas. She was thrilled.

What sticks in my mind isn't that card, but the comment Sybil made that weekend. I passed it along to YaYa, and at the church, the party, and school the next day, she made dang sure everyone knew that a church in the UK said prayers on her behalf. It made her feel very special.

Thanks for that.

Anyway, off to work. Talk to you later.

YaYa's First Communion: The After Mass Pictures

YaYa didn't much care for the picture phase of the morning, preferring to get right to the party. It was just about the only thing that didn't go her way the whole day. Here she is with us:





With my parents



With Great Aunt Mabel



With Chris and her family



With her Godfather



With Lisa's Mom and Stepfather



With my sister K



And sister C



With the one and only LuLu



With her Sunday school teacher:



With the candle we'd made in the prepatory class



And finally a pair with Father Spitz





During the photos with the priest LuLu came up and tried to get my attention. When she failed she slugged me in the leg.

"Don't hit your father" said Fr. Spitz.

She cocked her head. "He's my Dad, so uh, yeah I can!"

Nice to know I'm raising them right, huh?

Anyhow, one last note before we move on to the party. After the photos Father Spitz and I got to talking about the Swine Flu. His opinion was that it was ridiculous, even if he did go down the safe and sure route with the communion wine.

"One death out of 300 million people? You'd have worse luck walking across the street." he said.

The next day the state ordered the church and its school closed due to the Swine Flu, one of more than twenty closed in the area. It reopened, without incident, later in the week.

Agincourt

Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pub. Date: January 20, 2009
ISBN-13: 9780061578915
464 pp

The battle of Agincourt, when it’s remembered outside of academia, is chiefly known as the heroic backdrop for Shakespeare’s Henry V and its legendary line ‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers’.

In reality Agincourt was a stunning and bloody victory for the English in the fall of 1415, a triumph over stunning odds to secure Henry V the French crown he desired, but would never live to wear.

Bernard Cornwell, bestselling author of numerous historical novels, tries his hand at the battle in the simply named Agincourt. While the book may lack the signature quotes of the Bard, it establishes a poetry of its own as it brings medieval France to life on its pages.

Agincourt tells the tale of Nicholas Hook, a veteran of a destructive family feud that follows him into his service to the King. When he fails to stop his old nemesis from raping and killing a girl he strikes a priest and becomes an outlaw, seeking safety from the gallows among the archers sent to fight Henry’s war. At the defeat of Soissons he is the lone archer to escape the brutal French retaliation and helps a French girl escape the carnage - a girl that would become the focus for both the renewed feud and the terrible anger of her noble French father.

Throughout the book, from London to the wet fields of France, Nicholas is aided by the infrequent but insistent voices of St. Crispin and Crispinian, patron saints of Soissons, the French town butchered by its own army. It is on their Feast day - October 25th - that the sickly and vastly outnumbered English army meets the French on the field of Agincourt and history is made.

In the book there is no denying the greatness and wonder of the victory, and it will be difficult for a reader to distance themselves from the urge to cheer on Hook and his companions. Yet, spiritual guides aside, this is no whitewashed, censored version of history.

The campaign is brought to life with vivid depictions of the violence and filth that was a soldiers lot, a life lived in a time where dysentery and starvation were just as feared as any crossbow bolt. Without disturbing the flow of the narrative, Cornwell introduces the reader to the religious, technological, political, and social status quo of the era and its people, and the novel is that much richer for the attempt.

That holds true for his depiction of Agincourt itself. It is a miracle, true, by almost any definition, and a marvel of history. But it was also brought about by the French having to cross a muddy field ploughed deep for winter wheat; by their lack of a unified command structure; by the deadly barrage of the archers; and by the cocky bravado of the French meeting the insanely overconfident Henry head-on on an autumn day.

Agincourt is a fine read for those who love history, action, or just plain good storytelling