What a delightful day. Kayla and Nikiah Childs came to a
"Christmas Guru"craft workshop this morning. Elsa was dubbed the Christmas Guru by Leah Heinrichs Rose a couple years
ago. She certainly was this morning.
A special treat was having the girls
dropped off at 11:00 a.m. by their grandmother, Mary Parker Grubb, who
looks like a girl herself. It is difficult to fully grasp that Mary
is a grandmother. I have known her since she was in high school and she is
still beautifully young - it shimmers from her.
It was special to have a few moments to talk with her.
Kayla and Nikiah are already
dear to our hearts. The two of them came to Elsa's Christmas craft workshops
last year. Elsa offers her workshops to any child, at no cost, and for the
second year in a row, the only ones to nibble at her offer were these two
delightful young ladies.
Because there were just the two
girls and they were not baking (that will be the 12/17 workshop), Elsa worked on
the coffee table in the living room, giving me a ringside seat. She covered the coffee table with a giant
piece of holiday wrapping paper, so it
looked Christmasy as soon as you walked in. Today's workshop was on
"angels."
It was a pleasure to watch Kayla,
who is 9 and Nikiah, who I think is 7, watching as Elsa gave directions on
making an angel from a plain paper plate. Their eagerness to get started and in picking
out color schemes and embellishments was something to
behold. They worked side by side but
neither got in the other's way. They respected each other's territory.
I was impressed again this year that each
girl has a strong sense of personal style. After they were done with their angels, which
were both gorgeous, they cut out and decorated butterfly
ornaments and made tiny colorful cardboard heart boxes. Those little heart boxes are amazing to me.
The rule of thumb at Elsa's
workshops is that the children can do whatever they want As she said whenever one
of the girls asked if they could add this embellishment or use that color,
"You can do anything you want."
Another phrase you hear her use time and
again is "Be bold!"
Elsa played Christmas music, Kenneth
Coy's "Seasonal Improvisations" and lots of Boston Pops. The two hours flew by. I enjoyed it all so much, I wore myself out and nodded off for a few
moments right there in the big chair in the living room.
Robin and Amy picked them up. It was wonderful to have an opportunity to
get to talk to the two of them - I came
to know Robin from when he was in Australia. I got to know Amy as an adult (she was in
Elsa's third class when she taught 6th grade, way back when)
in a very unusual way that I will share with you sometime.
We came to know Robin & Amy as a couple last winter,
through Kayla and Nikiah. I remember Robin last year asking Elsa why
they had been so lucky as to have her put on three or
four craft workshops for their daughters. I still can hear her simple, unembellished
reply, "They were the only ones that signed up."
I am sorry for the children who did not leap
at the chance last year or this, but am
so very happy that Kayla and Nikiah did. They - and their parents - have been
blessings in our lives.
A happy Grammie is heading up the
wooden hill to bed, filled with happy thoughts of three generations dear
to my heart.
Love to all - Gocky
No comments:
Post a Comment