Dancing into the New Year

I've been serving in Young Women's for a while now and during one of our meetings, it came up that our ward needed chaperones for the New Year's dance. I matched the enthusiasm of the other women there and hemmed and hawed, saying I might be able to do it. I wouldn't admit it there, but I'll confess here that I was actually excited about the opportunity to go back in time. I loved Stake Dances as a youth, and was looking forward to feeling young again. I roped Brandon into coming with me - he's a good sport. Right there in my rope was Grandpa, who agreed to stay home with sleeping children instead of painting the town red. 

It was a superhero theme, so naturally Brandon wore his Captain America shirt and I his Thor shirt. (He's really just an XL kid.) Years ago, I made the grave mistake of downplaying Captain America's awesomeness and have regretted it ever since. This was after the first movie came out, and besides his obvious honour and integrity, I didn't see much special about his powers. Anytime Marvel superheroes come up in conversation anywhere (you'd be surprised how often it happens!) Brandon labels me anti-American because I don't gush as much about Steve Rogers as I do Thor. But we set our differences aside and manned one of the exits of the dance, side by side. With a whole couch in between us - got to set an example for those young people!

This guy right here is the hottest date I've ever had to a New Year's Dance. (Don't tell him the category isn't exactly brimming with candidates.) Ah, memories.

 

My having a date was a whole lot different than my experiences as a youth at Stake Dances. My hanging out next to the food table at every opporuntity was not. Perhaps there's a correlation there?

We spied on our nephews, Jacob and Jaxon, who are perpetually 5 in my mind but look like 14 year old boys who are taller than me. Both danced every slow dance and asked and were asked by a variety of young women, and I was so proud to see them being so kind to girls who reminded me of me way back when - trying to look like it wasn't a big deal that no one had asked them to dance halfway into the song, but making themselves painfully available.
The balloons dropped at midnight, and I glanced at my phone to see how close we were to real time and caught a glimpse of my two babies and couldn't help but smile. Sometimes I miss my younger days and wish I could relive them, but when I think about where I am now and the little (and big) people I have in my life, I'm perfectly happy living in the present. It's a gift, after all.

My handsome date even asked me for a spin or two on the dance floor and it was so much fun. We hardly knew any of the songs (I haven't listened to the radio in years - but if Sesame Street had come on, I'd know every word) and our dance moves gave away our age, but we had a ball. 

There was a couple no younger than 70 cutting a rug all night while they chaperoned and I made Brandon promise that we'd be that couple in 40 years. If we can stay up this late again!