Quasars to Sea Stars Holiday Party

We got to attend the annual holiday party for the Quasars to Sea Stars program at the SB Museum of Natural History. As an alumna, I am invited, and since Stellan may be the first second-generation Quasar, I always drag him and Kevin along.
It was good to see all the teens and other alums in attendance, and we were glad to get rid of two awesome white elephant gifts we dragged across the country. (That's a story for another post.) Stellan had a great time, mostly because the desserts were on the low table in the kids' classroom, so he had free range all night. Which we unfortunately didn't notice until he had his way with several cupcakes and half a tin of Trader Joe's star cookies. (He's now on a dessert furlough at least until Christmas.)
I also participated in the holiday sweater contest. I must admit to some shame on this one. I was told that there would be a mandatory gaudy holiday sweater contest, but I wasn't going to spend the time to shop around for one, new or used, and instead took the shortcut and asked Momfa if she had one. She of course replied that she did; then, to my horror, she said, "This is for one of those ugly sweater contests, isn't it?" I felt pretty guilty. But it paid off - thanks to my awesome runway skills and an elf hat left over from last week's Winter FUNderland, I won the contest. Thanks, Momfa: it really wasn't ugly enough to win, I just know how to make a decent outfit look worse!
The only tragedy of the night was Kevin's unfortunate run-in with a waist-high chain link fence. He was on his way to dispose of a poopy diaper in the big dumpster out back and thought he was past all the fencing. The lack of lighting, while beneficial for star parties at the nearby observatory, did not properly indicate the existence of the fence; Kevin confidently walked right into it and promptly fell right over it. Ten minutes later, he managed to get off the ground and limp back to the party. His knee may never be the same. That said, he wants to assure all interested parties that he'll be good to play volleyball on Monday night if he can get enough players.
Despite this minor incident, a good time was had by all. I'd like to send a special shout-out to all the Quasars, current and past; I'm glad to share something so awesome in common with you. Keep doing great things with your lives!