Pow-wow WOW!

As you may or may not know, my granddaughter is living with me. My daughter is working full time, and decided to add to that by going back to school. We decided that "T" would come here and go to school for the first half of the school year. We live in a neighborhood full of kids, the school is right around the corner, so why not, right? It has been an adventure to say the least! When my daughter was in school, I worked, so I missed school functions, field trips etc. I feel like I have been given a second chance to make that up, and I am loving it. Sadly it does cut into my computor time,, lol. "T" is half native (Coast Salish) on her dad's side, and when she is on the island her school is immersed in her culture. Over here, not so much. I was lucky to find a Pow-Wow class they were holding in the evening at her school. Last night was the Aboriginal dinner, and the kids got to dance. My throat closed up, my eyes watered up, and my heart filled up. To see her dance with her robe on, the drums, the singing, it made everything 'right'. The evening was fantastic, they have a huge dinner after the dancing, then Santa made his appearance. "T" sat on his lap, and when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said "my family happy". How many times can I have my eyes get all misty in one evening?? Good thing I had on my water proof mascara. Then in another room, the have the Kids Christmas store. People donate things, NICE things, and the kids are given a shopping list to fill out. The put the names and ages of people they need to buy Christmas gifts for, then they go with a Santa helper, and shop. Things cost as little as 25cents, and they come out with their bags of stuff that the parents are not aloud to see. It is a great idea, because now the kids really felt like they shopped for mommy and daddy for Christmas! "T" bought for her mom, her mom's boyfriend, his son, and of course,,, ME!!!! Her bag of stuff is tucked away in her room, I am not allowed to peek, and she is wrapping them up today. I admit, I do like the homemade gifts that my daughter used to make more than anything in the world, but I am pretty stoked to see what she picked out. I think this is officially the last year that Santa will be real for "T". She is really questioning it now, and flip flops daily on it. She decided a few times that he wasn't real, then went to school and had indepth conversations with her friends, and decided to hold out hope for a little while longer. She said to me, "what can it hurt? It means an extra gift right?" Hmmm, not greedy at all eh? Now I am off to catch up on everyone elses blogs, Happy Weekend!