So how totally adorable are these Girl Scouts? They are all Holiday'd (my word......let's all start using it in the real world okay?) Up to go Caroling at a local Retirement Center. One that has 3 levels of care....Independent living, Assisted living and then Lock Down living (safety for the people with Alz). The place (the name is withheld so I can't be brought up on slander charges later) is very close to our school. I didn't honestly know that it existed. One of the mothers in the younger Daisy troop at our school put the event together. They gave her 3 nights to choose from. She was given no guidelines as to what would be expected - except I would imagine the commen sense kinda like "no one with a contagious disease please". And the girls were all so tickled to go caroling that we didn't care which night was chosen. So she picked one.
Everyone dressed in casual best - made certain to wear their sashes and add any yet to be attached badges and patches - brushed their hair and donned their Santa cap - and into the vans we went.....
One of our girls even brought her Sax!! She had been practicing Jingle Bells for the school band. I will say she did a very nice job! Way to be MissB! The only draw back was she was kinda slower in playing then the girls were in singing. So she never really played WITH the girls.........she played behind the girls and then kinda gave up. We figured after the girls made it through their song medley we would put MissB up in front and let her play her song solo. There was little break between songs as the girls were singing at a tempo that even we couldn't recognize or keep up with. It was almost - I think - part of the entertainment to see how THEY put the song verses together. I mean.......they had the words right (hard to goof that up as they were written down on paper in front of them)......but they were singing things so fast that there was no break in between verses and you never could recognize a refrain in a song as being a "break". What was even more entertaining was watching the face of the Brownie Leader and Daisy Dad (the mom leader had to work) that were "leading" the songs........each time the girls left the beat they were singing the song in they kinda rolled their eyes a bit, made a sweet face and waited until they could figure out where the girls were to catch up and try to get them back on track - it was kinda like herding cats.
And then..........a bit more then half way through the singing........it happened. One of the facility directors - oh did I mention that this was a VERY VERY SWANKY retirement facility? Like VERY VERY....I can not mention how many VERY's it would take. This place had large screen tv's....furniture nicer then the Hilton Lobby.....shoot the wing we were in had a chef making omelets to order AND Banana's Foster as a demonstration!! There was wifi.........we passed a dining room that was all made up with a beautiful holiday theme......Christmas decorations like you see in Macy's....it was GORGEOUS! It smelled beautiful too - I say this because I have been in many retirement facilities and then NEVER smell so beautiful - shoot my own house hardly smells that good! Someone said later that it cost $2,400 a month to live there. That is more then my mortgage!
So you get the picture......it is Beautiful! Back to the story.......
The director comes in - she is obviously trying to figure out where one song the girls are singing ends and where one begins - she false starts at one point to interrupt, but the girls don't "get it" and keep going. Then as soon as the girls take a breath in unison she breaks in clapping........"Well that was wonderful girls! We all really appreciate you coming and we hope you have a very Merry Christmas!"
I don't know which one, but some girl says "We aren't done." and the Director kinda - no, not kinda - totally ignores her and says, "Maybe you can come back next year." Now......we have only been there for about 17 minutes. We were thinking after doing a Lounge Act we would move into the Assisted living area and sing door to door - that was the prearranged plan at least. Parents aren't picking girls up for another hour - we got PLENTY of time. And then the Director begins to shoo us down the hall toward the parking lot door we came in from.
What did we do? Well apparently the beautiful dining room we saw set up was for a party some of the residents were having with their children and they needed the parking spaces we were using emptied up because the children of the residents were complaining about having to park far away in the "back" parking lot. Did I mention how much the residents children were paying to have their parents live there? Yes.....you see why we got the Santa Boot right?
Next year when we go we will add "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" to our medley.
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