December 2016 marked year 3 of the Abraham-Bowes Christmas Spectacular, and John was determined to make the tape ball one to remember. Kelly's Aunt Janet was in town and so we decided some more numbers to the mix. In the end we had 36 different numbers encased within a ball made of newspapers and nearly four rolls of packing tape. John was proud and the group was naive.
Since the Abrahams were spending the first Christmas in their new house they hosted, but we arrived in style. At this point John still believed he had created the right mix of challenge and fun in the ball that would be at the center of the night's activities. And he brought the ball in with a great deal of confidence, illustrating perfectly the maxim, "Pride goeth before a fall".
In a good tape ball experience, this is what we want to see - smiles on the faces of children holding up numbers they have pulled out of the mess of tape and paper. Ideally, it is an activity that will take about 30 minutes or so and then we can get to the process of picking presents in order of our numbers.
On this night, however, most of the time was spent trying to break through the tape and paper that seemed impenetrable. Knuckles bled, fingernails broke, children got bored, and it took the better part of two hours to get to the last number. Oops.
In the end, though, the Christmas spirit rose from the tattered remains of John's hubris. We can't say enough about how much we enjoy spending time with the Abrahams, and this night was further proof of how lucky we are to have friends like them.
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