Christmas at the Library

So, I was a little disappointed at the beginning of the month with the turn out of one of my programs. I thought it would be a spectacular idea to have a "Deck the Library" program where community members could come in and help us decorate the library. I had hoped it would save me (and my teen volunteers who always get stuck putting up the two library trees) a lot of valuable time and would be super fun. We also had decorations for the kids to make, one to take home and one to stay at the library. Fantastic idea, right? I don't know what the problem was but only six people showed up. Luckily, I had a good number of my Teen Advisory Board members show up so that job still got done.
However, today I am very pleased. Last night the TAB members and myself went Christmas caroling. (We even put on Santa hats...so cute!) We called it "Wii Carol" because we changed some lyrics to a few Christmas songs and visited local homes and businesses to raise money for a Nintendo Wii at the library. I was a little apprehensive about this because I had never heard of anyone going Christmas caroling for money before but I called ahead to everywhere we went to get permission to solicit donations.
Well, it was a huge success! We had so much fun and made a very decent amount of money for our Wii Fund. "Please help us to get a wii/Fa la wii wii wii wii wii wii wii! We are from the library/ Fa la wii wii wii wii wii wii wii!" Oh, it was great!
Today our staff came in late because of the ice storm last night. It was a nice opportunity to sleep in! It also feels slightly reminiscent of the ice storm of 2004 (or whenever that was) when I lost power at home for a week, schools were shut down, and there was nothing to do but bundle up, read with flashlights, play stupid card games where people steal your "milk money," and look at all the "pretty" ice glistening on the trees (and power lines!).


Tonight is the staff Christmas party and I'm very excited. The stocking are hung and are starting to look fat with Secret Santa gifts!
My confession: even librarians like to party, sing carols, and drink egg nog! Though sometimes we wear very ugly Christmas sweaters, too...guilty.