Explaination: in college, a few friends and I started reading childrens books during the week to de-stress. It started out with just a few of us taking turns reading from one of our favorite childhood books whenever we felt like it, and eventually grew into a weekly event (usually involving hot cocoa). No matter how stressed out we were, we always made time for reading night - it was our little oasis of relaxation in the middle of stressful classes, finals and projects. During our four years at St. Olaf, we made it through Wind in the Willows, Dealing with Dragons and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, to name a few.
During the 2008 holidays Ben decided to bring reading night back, and invited a bunch of the old gang (in town for the holidays) over for some wine, cookies and A Christmas Carol...and we've kept up the tradition every year since. I played hostess last night, which was so much fun. I love having people over and it was great to see everyone: Lindsey, who is now a photography grad student in Iowa City; Tyler W., who works in arts management in San Francisco; Chris, on a breif break from teaching high-schoolers in Paraguay; Mark and Tessie, now high school teachers in Eden Prarie and Edina; Biz, who has an amzing job at MPR; and Tyler N., a lawyer working for a district judge.
For munchies, we had sliced pears and kale salad, Cowgirl Creamery cheese (provided by Tyler W.), Christmas cookies from Lindsey's mom, and for the main course, pizza from Pizza Luce! (Pizza Athena, and Sausage and Mushroom). While we ate, laughed and caught up with one another, we sipped Bell's Double Cream Stout, Crispin cider, and a red wine provided by Ben.
Reading came from a lovely hodgepodge of sources - Casey at the Bat, Shel Silverstien's Where the Sidewalk Ends, Morris's Disappearing Bag, and Mark's favorite: Rumi Out of Context. This basically consisted of Mark picking up my book of Rumi poems from the coffee table and reading random excerpts out of context (i.e. "The Apple, 'Orange, why the frown?'").
Can I just say how happy it makes me that even though we're all off doing impressive adult-like things, we still find the time to get together for a little laughter, a lot of silliness, and of course, a good childrens book. :)
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