The First Annual Reading Club Christmas Party

... a typical child's meal ...

Wyona hosted The First Annual Reading Club Christmas Party.

Five year olds who have been learning to read were invited to bring their favourite volume to read.

The audience sat in wrapped wonder as the little ones read their chosen chapbook, first giving the audience the story, and then they got to choose one page and read it backwards.

... the beloved creche from the Phillipines ...

That is, starting at the period in a sentence and going backwards to the capital of that sentence.

What a daring way to test them! Do they really know these words when they don’t have sentence context to back them up.

There were gifts at the end of the readings.

... homemade chilli for the adults ...

All of the readers got two packets of Phonics Learning Flash Cards.

Cheers went up!

Then they were gifted with five Primary Phonics workbooks that Laynie had xeroxed.

More cheers. And cheers for the beautiful 3 ring zippered binders that Charise had donated.

... Landon and Michael sit side-by-side ...

Next came 2 packages of magnetic pictures and words to be put on fridges.

At that Landon got up and did a victory dance.

The loot was coming in.

Next came a spiral binder full of more word games.

More cheers!

Hannah Pilling
 ... youngest member at the Reading Club Party ...

Two small tables were set up in the entry way, surrounded by chairs.

That is where the readers club members and their friends enjoyed their meal together.

Wyona had small glasses out for them – they could choose their drink and their glass.

... dessert -- ju-jubes ...

Some of the choices were goblets; other choices were different colours of shot glasses that seemed to be bent and unstable but which didn’t fall over.

 ... Audra, the evenings best child tender ...

Chocolate milk was a first choice of beverage; orange crush was a close second.

As with other festive occasions hosted by Wyona, what her small guests ate was entirely up to them.

dessert -- sour soothers

Audra sat at the table with them, and kept the conversation going.

Most of them have attended birthday parties together, or have met each other at the beach, so they were at least passingly familiar with each other.

If something can go wrong at a party, it will.

dessert - bones

At this event, Wyona’s kitchen sink backed-up.

Tonia’s recent experience with a similar problem tells her to call the city first, but the men wanted to at least get the sink semi-functional.

Tim Oldham, Jeremy Pilling and Richard Johnson all took their turns analyzing, augering, taking out the p-trap or running to Home Depot for another part or a tool rental.

dessert - cheesies

I think there were 19 at the party.

Space was at a premium.

Imagine yourself either in the kitchen or the living room; there are only small isles through which to walk.

disgusting -- dried, candied rhubarb

If you pass someone, both of you must turn sideways. Everywhere else in the room there were Christmas decorations: the tree was decorated; garlands were hanging from the windows; musical toys were being pressed and playing their melodies; the crèche was being arranged and rearranged; gifts were spilling out from under the tree; and the Yule log was playing on a T.V. channel.

Piper, a potential candidate for next year's club
note her off-centred beverage glass

The gift of being able to read.

Time to bow my head and say “God bless them, everyone.”

Arta