The Support Group for Recovering Scrooges

If you have known Sam or me since we became Sam-and-Marilyn (or Marilyn-and-Sam, if you prefer), you probably know that if there's one thing we like, it's having a project to work on together. So we were happy that this year brought our turn to plan the family "adults-only" party! (Has it been 10 years already since the Breakfast Symposium, which may have been our Finest Hour?! Well...not quite, but what with one thing and another, our turn came early.)

The Theme we eventually hit upon was to have it be a meeting of the Support Group for Recovering Scrooges ("Transformation doesn't happen overnight!")—because who doesn't occasionally struggle with relapse into Scrooginess at this time of year? We wanted to talk about how to "keep Christmas all the year round;" how to be like Scrooge was after his change of heart; how to maintain that "Christmas-morning-level" hopefulness and joy, even when we're tempted to be grumpy and miserly.

We planned the party for the week after Christmas, which is a departure from tradition, but fit nicely with the theme—and made everything a lot less hectic, too. And we planned a "Christmas Morning Breakfast" for our meal (a natural choice because we have always liked breakfast—as our last party will demonstrate!).

With the theme settled, Sam and I could get to the part we like best, which is fleshing it all out. We KNOW all these little touches aren't necessary, but we like thinking of them so much! In some ways, we don't even care so much how the party itself turns out—we just like getting ready for it! The first step was sending out letters, of course. We assigned some topics for people to talk about. Luckily the Nielson family has a sense of humor (and tolerated things like us assigning the speech on "Decreasing the Surplus Population" to Susan and Dave, who have ten children). 

The graphic design and logo design was all done by Sam, of course. It added just the right touch.

There are 20 of us that attend this party, so it definitely fills up the house, but we managed to find enough seating. Abe was a great help cleaning and getting ready, as he always is. We even had to move the piano! I post these pictures to remember how clean it all was. Ah, those were the days!

Sam wore a nightshirt and cap and worked on his ferocious scowl—to great effect! I wore a robe and a holly crown to be the Ghost of Christmas Present, and tried not to dissolve into laughter every time I looked at Sam. (He was a little worried that the fwuffball on the end of his nightcap was too bouncy and fluffy to be Scrooge-like. But he tolerated it manfully.)

Here is our "Welcome Table." It contained name tags, of course, and informational literature, and a quiz for members of SGRS to fill out. (And did you know See's Candies makes chocolate coins? We got these there, which meant they were GOOD, unlike most chocolate coins I have encountered!) 

We had a bowlful of little buttons/badges/pins (whatever they're called!) for people to take and wear, kind of like the tokens they give out in AA to commemorate years of Sobriety. (As the Ghost of Christmas Present, I wore lots of buttons, having been "sober" [or should we say "merry"?] for centuries now.) Sam designed all the buttons and they were some of the best things ever:

I can't even decide which one I like best.

What's a Support Group Meeting without informational literature? Naturally, we made a brochure.

Sam came up with the "12 Steps of Christmas."

I modified an Inspirational Poem, and Sam provided the appropriate graphics.

There were also other useful graphs and quizzes (click to enlarge—after all, grouchiness IS a serious problem that affects all of us).

The meal was great. Eggs and bacon, baked French toast, cheese and meats, sweet peppers and tomatoes, avocado toast, sweet breads, muffins. I cooked four packages of bacon and they all got devoured (apparently I slightly underestimated the Nielson thirst for bacon).

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Next were the presentations, which can't be overpraised. Some were funny. Some were serious. They were all great! We had a Grinch monologue, a poetic lament about how children ruin everything (followed by a poetic rebuttal of the same), a discourse about forming good habits and overcoming bad ones, and several other wonderful contributions. I talked about how to navigate the JustServe website and app ("Mankind should have been your business")—which is a resource I LOVE! Have you tried it? So helpful and so easy to use!

Here is the Scrooge Quiz with its Answer Key, should you ever have need of such a thing. Could you have passed it? Pam and Michael got all but one correct, I think, which meant they won the Fabulous Prize. (It was the two-faced Scrooge ornament Sam sculpted in 3D and then printed on the 3D printer at BYU, and it was amazing. But as I don't currently have pictures, I will show that in another post!)

Dave's costume was a highlight.

So was Dad in his chains!

Pamela and Michael made this awesome "Scrooge's Guide" to caroling for carol-haters.

It was a great evening, made successful by everyone's participation and good-sport-i-ness (we try not to require anyone to do something they hate, but it certainly helps to have a family who will do something!). And in spite of the lighthearted-ness of the original idea, we had some really good discussion about how to maintain a change of heart, and the importance of hope and repentance, which made me feel like we all went home a little bit improved and uplifted, as well.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come was sitting behind the Welcome Table, and after almost everyone had gone home and I was sitting and talking with our sister-in-law, I looked over to see him waving his arm at me solemnly. It practically gave me a heart attack! (Abe was behind it, of course. He had taken all the kids out for hamburgers and ice cream while we had our party, and then they all sneaked back in one of the downstairs windows so as not to disturb us.) 

It was also a little unnerving to have his ghostly figure sitting casually around on the couch the next day. But it served as a good reminder of our own mortality—and of our successful Scrooge Party!