Chancellor's Christmas Party

 

Apparently Travalon and I don't fully understand the rules of soccer, because on Friday morning he was watching Croatia play Brazil, and Brazil scored a goal just before time ran out. They were cheering, and the Croatians looked defeated, so we both assumed the game was over. (I was working from home and not really watching the game, but I saw that moment and thought the same thing.) Travalon turned off the TV, but later he found out more time was added to the game, so Croatia got another chance to score and tie things up, and then they won the shootout. He could have watched some or all of it, had he known.

This morning my Advent calendar let me down: I opened the window for the 12th and there was nothing in it! To be fair, maybe that's because there were two gemstones in the window for the 5th, but still. What a bummer.

After work today I was invited to the Chancellor's Christmas party for campus leadership. (Yes, apparently I am a leader on campus.) I don't really love these parties where you are supposed to mingle with important people, and I managed to evade the Chancellor by getting there before she set up camp beside the checkin table so she could greet everyone. Later I saw her mingling in the crowd, but she never came my way - my powers of invisibility do come in handy. At first I was sitting alone, but then a lovely couple joined me, and we talked about their hometowns of Mineral Point and Prairie du Chien. They drank their free drinks and ate the free food and left, and then the Chair of the Central Committee (I'm the Vice Chair) joined me for a bit with his boss. Then they left, but Travalon arrived, so I wasn't alone too much. After the party we went to Zoo Lights, but they are only open on the weekends, even though all the lights are shining tonight, so we went to the display at Olin-Turville Park. Some of my photos didn't turn out, but here are a few:

This is Maynard T. Mallard, the mascot of the Mallards baseball team:

This is a decoration we saw yesterday as we were driving back from looking at lights in Maple Bluff.

This is an adorable pair of teeny snowmen I saw on a walk at work today.

Here are some photos from the handbell concert on Saturday night.

In this one, they are all wearing silly headwear while playing "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."

Here are some photos from the holiday train displays at Olbrich Gardens:

And here are some photos from the conservatory there:

I joke that this titan arum plant is my grandchild, because I took care of its parent years ago when I was in college.

And this is a super cute little quail that was running around the conservatory.

These are the stuffies I got during Street Fest.

The Unicorn Seahorse, Ka-ching Bear (because she has a dollar sign on her chest), and a weird little Christmas tree stuffy. I got a beach towel too but have yet to locate that for a photo.

Famous Hat