SUCCESS, by Ralph Waldo Emerson: To laugh often and much...//church christmas festival

"SUCCESSby Ralph Waldo Emerson
To laugh often and much;To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty,To find the best in others,
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded." 

mostly fun day.  the church has a Christmas Festival the first sunday after Epiphany/3 kings day every year.  Bring a dish, the church also makes chicken and potato salad which the father claims he makes himself.  he will be speaking on one of the martin luther king speeches, for martin luther king day, in town and at church shortly.  they had a band.  one of the band members was sitting with us at the 50-ish table.  lol.  gad so old, all of us!  she is selling proactive skin-care now, you can get in for $395 as a sales rep, she does this in addition to working as a rep for a metal roofing company that she and her husband own.  
she claims estee lauder owns 80% of the skin care/make-up counters at nordstroms and other stores like that -- like macy's (they own clinique and prescriptive etc).  proactive used to be owned by them as well and could be bought at the same places.   now its gone solo.  she is swearing by it.  i use mary kay myself, and have for 35 years.  i didn't say this, but i actually see a difference in what i look like, if i don't use mk extra emollient night cream.   i actually LOOK different.  but it was interesting to have a normal conversation at a church function - with "big words" - its also what i miss about ron being gone.  he was able to explain the bible commentary on each festival at the church right off the top of his head, because he studied to be a priest before he got married - his wife died several years ago.  odd that he's not around much anymore and i know someone said he was ill at some point.  what's up?   i think part of me misses college and attending lectures actually, wonder how old people do when they go back for higher degrees at an old age?  lol.  at some universities you go for free if you are over 62, but i'm not at that age yet.  lol.    church conversation is generally so light, its amazing we don't all fly away.  its nice though - mostly well-behaved.    
they had a ton of food, and the church was packed.  the line was moving so slowly that i bothered to get up and give out plastic plates and tell people to form two lines, one going to the backs of the tables of food and the other the front of the tables of food.  they said once the lines were in two pieces it went fast.  glad it worked.  have to always remind yourself, anything that is volunteer, anyone can and should pitch in to help, there is always too much to get done and not enough people to do it.  
the food is always fabulous, sausage and peppers, grilled chicken, baked ziti, baked rigatoni, ambrosia, bottled wine (surprised they had this, though making spritzers for it would have been best, as it went super fast and spritzers would triple the amount).  they had a picture booth and snow cones for the kids and peppermint mocha lattes for adults inside the cafe and out.  at the end they toasted marshmallows at the fire pit.  all of this knocked me out, and i actually fell asleep when i got home.  i know a lot of that is the low hemoglobin, OR i'm just getting old.  lol.  i can remember relatives needing naps after the slightest bit of event, even managers at work were like that and i always thought they were joking.  lol.    now i'm the old one myself and i need the rest.  i haven't used the cafe there much, but i hear its excellent.  
j showed up which is rare.  he gives out fives for tithing.  i said to him, you realize the baskets goes around over and over again, but he hardly ever goes to any church, so i guess he can do that.  they had a clap fest with the music, the 11:00 service is the modern one.   they also had cool lights glimmering with smaller lights and metallic stars, all over the ordinary church lights.   all beautifully done, especially reflecting against the huge stained glass windows on two of the walls, that are almost as pretty as the paintings and bright, festive colors that you see inside a greek church.  
saw adn at the firepit, wanted her to know i showed up for the actual service and not just the fellowship.  she is also doing daycare 3 days per week there.  i think she is bored since she "retired" and kind of annoyed because her son moved far away when he got married and she says he does anything his new wife wants to do, which included moving out of state.  she was horrified.   she is another one with a LOT of kids - five.  but no one is living here, or even nearby except her daughter and her daughter is a teacher, and travels all the time through educational services, so never around.  its surprising, because they all get along, but they are all gone anyway.  wanted to ask her about ron, but forgot.  he wasn't there.  i think something more is wrong - either lost his hearing or something more serious like with george around the block.  
adn is still annoyed that i don't wave to her, can't believe it.  i don't know which car is her's.  she probably did tell or show me, but i'm not going to remember that.  just like i don't remember how to change my avatar and LOTS of people have given me instructions for that.  really surprised when people take things personally.  i don't.   she gets dressed up once per week for church, she says its her only chance to get dressed up.  she should live in south florida, she could have fun with clothes down there.  north florida is extemely casual and always has been.  she's from columbia, south carolina and i think connecticut before that.   she says its snooty in columbia.   when their business went bankrupt allll of their friends dropped them.  she never expected that - even their country club dropped them.  they moved to north florida and in north florida no one cares about money except the human traffickers that are about an hour south of here in the fly-in and those people are criminals who haven't gone to jail yet, anyway.  good riddance.   its snooty in lots of places, but not here.  at things like cat shows people are dressed so "uniquely out of fashion," its almost like a costume.  lol.   but if you miss the dress and attitudes thing, south florida has that.