We were in Newton on Saturday Feb. 9 for a baby shower for Katherine, the daughter of long-time friends (where by long-time I mean Katherine’s mother used to give Arlene rides to work in the winter of 1969 when our car wouldn’t start). I neglected to bring a camera to the event, and was hoping Katherine or her father or someone would email me a couple of photos to put up here.
We were slightly staggered by the volume of gifts — Arlene is from an era when people would give one item, rather than three or four or five, at a shower.
Katherine’s sister April sort of organized the event from across the continent. We’re not sure just what that consisted of; maybe it was along the lines of “you should have a cake — well, find a cake you like and I’ll pay for it.” But I think there was somewhat more to it than that. April works for Google and probably is as well versed in getting work done over the internet as most anyone.
I liked the bingo game, which gave everyone something to do while the presents were opened besides looking at the presents. There was a bingo card for each guest, with each square (except of course “FREE” in the middle) naming a potential shower present — “baby blanket,” “book in English,” “book in another language,” “diapering supplies,” “baby safety equipment,” (in this state you’re not allowed to drive the baby home from the hospital until you’ve shown them an approved car seat) etc. I imagined that the bingo boards were done in Excel, given that several guests were describing themselves as Excel geeks. In fact, the baby is pre-nicknamed “little geek.”
Katherine and her husband asked each guest to fill out a page of sort of profile, so the baby would have a record of who its parent’s friends were. They weren’t all the same. One question on mine which stumped me for a while was “favorite game.” I finally settled on “ruffed grouse — oh wait, that’s ‘favorite game bird’.”