Hello Lurkers: this one's for you!
Perhaps you were in downtown Seattle one Friday evening in December, maybe catching up on your holiday shopping, maybe meeting a friend for a movie or coffee or a look at the Christmas tree. You parked your car or rode the elevator down from your office, stepped out into the brisk cold, and suddenly your ears were accosted by:
SINGING! EVERYWHERE! SO MANY PEOPLE WITH THE SINGING! AND WHY ARE THEY ALL WEARING MATCHING MITTENS?
You, dear Reader, were lucky enough to catch some performances at one of the annual Great Figgy Pudding Street Corner Caroling competitions, a Seattle Tradition and a fund raiser benefitting the Pike Market Senior Center and Downtown Food Bank.*
I was once like you, dear Reader, and merely a wide-eyed onlooker happily overwhelmed in the presence of 40 Starbucks baristas belting "Jingle Bell Rock", the law firms dressed like snowmen, the salesmen dancing to "Here Comes Santa Claus", and the extended families wearing identical red scarves and doing the hand motions for "Thirty-Two Feet and Eight Little Tails."
But now? Now I will be one of THEM.
For those of you who aren't intimately familiar with the various Limbs on my Family Tree, I must introduce you to the woman who initiated the whole thing, Wacky Aunt. We adore Wacky Aunt for a myriad of things, including, but certainly not limited to: the time she did my makeup for my one and only tap dance recital, teaching me all the words to "A Bicycle Built For Two", taking me to 587 movies during my lonely freshman year of college, and the open invitation to play her piano, even though I totally butcher "Michelle" every time she tries to sing along. Wacky Aunt sent out an email a few weeks ago, imploring its recipients to please consider participating in the Figgy Pudding contest as she was going to register a team! Eeeeee! My immediate reply? "I AM SO IN."
And now I am, even though I sing through my nose and can't stand to be the center of attention. Okay, I can hear the snort my mother just let out from halfway around the world, so let me rephrase that: My lone warbly voice lifting across Westlake Center in front of THOUSANDS is not something I can get stoked about. Holding court at the family dinner table and pontificating on the Evil that is Administrative Assisting is one thing, actual performing is quite another. But we will be singing in a group and, as evidenced by our first practice last night, we have quite enough Hams, thank you. Want to rewrite the lyrics to "Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire", turn it into a satire on holiday shopping, and slay the ladies with your killer Dean Martin-esque vocal stylings? Get in line. Our group includes a few hams, a Betty Boop voice, a potential saxaphonist, a prop man, and friend of mine who had no idea what she got herself into. Did I mention there will be wigs? And a version of "Santa Baby"? And wigs? Did I mention the wigs? BLOND WIGS, PEOPLE!
And you, dear Readers, will need to stop by and check it out. Especially because it is a FUND RAISER and we will be needing good people like yourselves to put a few dollars in our hat. It will be a crazy fun time, I promise, and there's NOTHING like a bunch of accountants decked out in their reindeer antlers and Santa suits singing "Suzy Snowflake" to put you in the Christmas Spirit. There will be over 40 caroling teams stationed all around Westlake Center and blocking the entrances to every store. My team is assigned a very prestigious spot, right in front of God's own cosmetic store, Sephora, and right across the street from the CITY CHRISTMAS TREE. We? Are going to be FAMOUS.
*By the way, we here at mightymaggie have a special affinity for the Elderly and think any senior center should be a happy shiny place. The Pike Market Senior Center has been around since 1979 and serves "over 800 low-income and homeless seniors." YOU CAN HELP! Send me an email and I'll tell you how to donate the money you might have spent on a gingerbread latte or those mini-doughnuts in the Pike Market. I know! Yummy! But it's Christmas and there are some old folks in town with no grandchildren and no turkey dinner, so please consider helping my team raise a little money for a Super Good Cause. Everyone who donates gets a Figgy Pudding button or lapel pin and anyone who donates $5 or more gets a package of homemade Christmas cookies made by ME. And my cookies are WAY yummier than those mini-doughnuts. Don't count yourselves out, Far Away Lurkers, because I can put cookies in the MAIL.
Comments