Fifth Day of December

On the fifth day of December, I had volunteered to chaperone Kate's class trip to see The Grinch in New York City. I did the same with Jack's class two years ago.

Kate was very excited about both the trip and me being a chaperone. The night before she wrote me a note. "I can't wait to see the Grinch tomorrow!" She wrote. "With you!"

I showed up at school and collected Kate and her three little friends. She was all smiles and held my hand. "Can I sit next to you on the bus?" she asked. I said, well, we'll see, we'll all be close to each other. On the way down, she and her friends ended up sitting in the row right in front of me. They chattered away and occasionally she leaned around the edge of the seat to look back at me, but was fine.

We arrived, and clambered out of the bus to stand on the sidewalk. It was mildly nerve-wracking, so many people and little kids milling about. I did head counts over and over -- 1, 2, 3, 4, yup, got 'em all -- to make sure we had them.

We headed inside and all sat in our row. Kate wanted to be next to me; I made sure I was. We pulled out our peanut butter sandwiches (yum!) and ate lunch. It was only 10:30, but it felt later and everyone was hungry. One girl said she had to go to the bathroom, the others didn't, so I took her. Got back 10 minutes later, the other three had to go. Of course. We trundled off again. 1, 2, 3, 4, yup, got 'em all.

During the show, I was a little bit sympathetic to The Grinch. I mean, those Whos were kind of loud. Kate got a little scared at the scene of the Grinch riding his sleigh, because the lights were lowered and the music was roaring and the wind and fake snow were whipping around. Kind of cool! But Kate was nervous so I hugged her and reminded her of the cartoon version where the dog was riding the sleigh and stuff. She cheered up.

Kids and adults alike sang along to "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." We all made it back to the bus, and this time Kate grabbed a seat and saved me a spot next to her. Tallest person on the bus, me, ended up sitting over the wheel. Sigh. But it was OK, and we talked about the show all the way home.

As we got off the bus, she hugged me and held my hand as we said goodbye. Christmas Day is in our grasp, as long as we have hands to clasp.