Someday children's books will be written about this...

Tonight was holiday dinner. If you recall I live for dining hall themed dinners. Our food is some of the best in the nation and rumor has it our budget for special dinners is astronomical. Excessive spending? I don't care, it's amazing. Past holiday dinners have included "Nutcracker" with candle lit tables and roast beef. Next was "Holiday at the Beach" with, I kid you not, steak and swordfish. Our favorite? Charles Dickens Christmas complete with yorkshire pudding and cornish game hen. I KNOW, it's amazing. We were pumped for tonight. All year long the dining halls are theming their dinners after Eric Carle storybooks, so tonight's was "my birthday" or something like that, I was unfamiliar with the book. We were a bit hesitant. Birthday? Who's birthday? Jesus? That's a bit risky throwing a birthday party for Jesus here. It wasn't exactly "holiday" but we were going to run with it anyway. It couldn't be that bad, right? As we handed our cards to the checker she handed them back with a smile before saying "please...take a newspaper hat". I stared in horror at the tables covered in yellow packing paper and the stack of newspaper hats. I had only one thing to say "Holy crap, we're in a recession". 

Perhaps this was my moment that I will tell my grandchildren about. How my privileged lifestyle came crashing down. Paper and random balloons had replaced my tablecloths and candles. My soft holiday music playing over the intercom had been replaced with Kidz Bop and the typical Backstreet Boys cd that always plays in the dining hall. The cries of "ooo, and ahh" that typically come from diners entering the holiday dinner were replaced with "what the..." and "oh."

Dinner was still very good, they didn't let me down there. After dinner we had to trek over to the other dining hall for dessert. This is my least favorite part of BMC holiday dinners, spreading it out amongst the dining halls. When we arrived at Rhoads for our dessert, I was a bit taken aback. Clowns and childhood games abounded. I didn't know whether to be offended or to just suck it up and do some limboing. I settled for option 3, grab some cake and play a round of Operation. 

I can't be too grouchy, DS clearly put a lot of work into the event. The food was very good, as always, but it just wasn't a special holiday dinner. Maybe if they had done this for Fall Frolic or May Day I would have been more receptive. But holiday dinner? 

Also, they totally stole the idea of newspaper hats from me.

What happened to my white table cloths and candle lit dinners?

On the plus side, we were encouraged to draw on the table

It was also a two plate dinner...delicious as always

Did someone say recession?

Shannon makes failing economies look cute

Paige had to take a moment to classy herself up with Dorothy Vernon

The walk to the next dining location, my least favorite holiday tradition

Nicky's goody bag had, uh, this...

DS workers started doing the macarena

Paige and Ada the clown model the Operation card and her, uh, festive hat