Play Day

Yesterday was a day to play.

In the morning I accompanied my daughter to the elementary school where her youngest is a third grader. My daughter volunteers there frequently and yesterday she was planning to do an art project which required a couple of extra hands. She read the kids a cute story, “Stranger In The Woods,” while I passed out the makings for bird feeders. Each child had a pinecone and a big scoop of peanut butter, which they were to carefully spread onto the pinecone, getting it as deep as possible into the little shelves of the cone. (What do you call those little shelves?) Some of the kids were very neat; they spread the peanut butter without getting any on themselves and covered each little shelf with precision. Others gleefully filled their hands with the gooey stuff and spread it over the cone, their desk and themselves. It was a wonderful mess. The cones were then rolled in birdseed and placed into plastic bags for transport home. We left teachers and children happy with the activity. It was fun.

In the afternoon I dressed in my finest attire and picked up two ladies for high tea at the Belair Mansion. The mansion, which was built in 1750, was the home of Maryland’s first governor. It is a beautiful old brick house, which was all decorated for Christmas. My friends are both in their eighties. They were as excited as two little girls playing dress-up. We sipped tea from fine china cups and ate fancy little cucumber sandwiches. We had scones with clotted cream and jam and lovely little cream puffs. It was an elegant affair. Watching the delight in my friends’ eyes made the afternoon a happy holiday memory.