I Know that I was talking about our partying ways last week, but we’re still at it! Last night our house had a Christmas Party. It was a classy Christmas Sweater party, which meant that I wore a dress with a Christmas cardigan. We had cookies for decorating and ornaments for painting and Michelle made wassail (both spiked and non-spiked). We invited all the Amate volunteers and a bunch of alumni. The weather kept some people away, but we still had a great crowd, and the party was a lot of fun. Today it’s still snowing out so I’m sticking around. It is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the local church is dedicated to her so I’m going to check out one of their special Masses…and then come back home for our weekly Christmas movie.
This week was busy with accompaniments to the Daley Center. On Monday I had two clients with cases and went to court with one of them but we were early so I was able to stop by the other client’s court room. The client I went to court with was there to get guardianship of her adult twin daughters who have autism. They are very shy and do not like direct questioning but the judge had to ask them if they objected to having their mom named as their guardian. One of them nodded but then burst into tears so the judge quickly decided to grant guardianship and let them get out of there. But let me back up—in the courtroom of the client I visited there was a lawyer with the build and beard of Santa Claus. He had a cast on his foot and instead of crutches, he had a large wooden walking stick and was holding it up while he sat. Then, I went back to the courtroom with the client with whom I came to the Daley Center and noticed the clerk—who looked like a leprechaun. At first I was thinking he was an elf because I had just seen Santa Claus but then I heard his Irish accent and noticed his leprechaun dolls. He was very helpful, if a bit irritated that we were missing a couple of papers. After we walked out of the court room, I went back to get a copy of the order the judge signed, the clerk told me that, because of the crying, despite his many years of working as a clerk in the Daley Center this was the first case that truly touched him. I touched a leprechaun’s heart!
I had a couple more cases in the Daley Center this week, but they were quicker and less eventful. I also went to St Juliana’s School with Sr Kathy to give them Advent mission banks. The school is over twice as big as the school where Kerry and I went last week, so we split up. I mostly got the younger kids and they were very attentive and cute. A kindergartener even thought I was pretty. Up next…more parties! I have two work-related parties on Friday, back-to-back. But, I’m coordinating the second one so I don’t know if I’ll actually be able to go to the first…