It’s All in the Presentation!

"If you think presentations cannot enchant people, then you have never seen a really good one." - Guy Kawaski

Retired, homeschooled, it doesn’t matter- September is still the start of the “new year” to me. Right on schedule, I had an urge lately to organize and decorate but no classroom to prepare. At the same time, I made a promise to myself to celebrate the holidays and make life more fun for Precious Grandson this year. This is a challenge for me, because I have always done the bare minimum for holidays, except for Christmas. At school, I made sure we had an appropriate lesson and/or craft because it was expected. At home, I made sure the kids had their Halloween costumes, valentines for their classmates, wore green on March 17th and called it done. I had my first inkling that PG needed more effort from me when he insisted Christmas last year should look like an “explosion of decorations” even though I thought we had plenty with the tree, the Santas, and the village houses.

These energies were ruminating in the back of my mind when a random grouping of red, yellow, and blue plates in the dishwasher sparked an idea- Star Trek Day! I vaguely remembered a special that took place last September, so I looked it up. Sure enough, September 8th is officially Star Trek Day, commemorating the airing of the first episode of the original series back in 1966. At this point, it was a few weeks away, so I thought I’d make some napkin rings to go with the dishes, buy the blue soda PG likes but rarely gets, declare the spaghetti with red sauce Klingon g’ahk, and call it a day.

And then I mentioned it to the Precious Grandson…

“Will there be cupcakes?”

“Sure, I guess we can have cupcakes.”

“Will there be decorations? We need decorations.”

“Sure, I guess we can decorate a little.”

”What do we do for Star Trek Day?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. Maybe play Fluxx or watch our favorite episodes together?”

I decided to make napkin rings by gluing together strips of red, blue, and yellow ribbon to honor the three traditional uniform colors. (For all those capable of using a hot glue gun without burns, I salute you!) I printed cartoon stills from Lower Decks- PG’s favorite- on shrink plastic to make cupcake toppers. I mentioned it to PG’s Aunt D., who immediately wanted in and offered to make peanut noodles for the g’ahk. Wonderful Husband offered to make his red lentil soup, which we renamed Vulcan Plumeek soup. The sky projector could be set up for atmosphere. PG was excited, and he told random strangers all week that we going to have Star Trek Day.

I thought that was plenty, but his joy of anticipation had me adding more. I remembered that I had silicon molds in both cubes and spheres, so I started making “Borg ice”, six at a time. A trip to the craft store inspired me to do an alienish flower arrangement in the uniform colors. There were sparkly pom poms to add to the buffet. I was sorely tempted by the solid colored t-shirts (uniforms!) and large, fluffy, Tribble-ish puffs, but I restrained myself. This time. 😉

In the end, it was the little things that made the day special. Presenting a choice of “Klingon Bloodwine” (cherry coke) or “Romulan Ale” (sprite with a few drops of blue food coloring) was fun and took a barely measurable amount of extra effort. It made me smile when he asked for more bloodwine by name days later. Making sure to let everyone know that the vanilla cupcake with the raging Boimler topper was for PG because that’s his favorite scene with his favorite character lit him up with pure joy. I knew the day was a success when PG dug out the Star Trek Fluxx on his own and asked us to play with him.

We are already planning to celebrate again next year, as well as reusing the decorations for First Contact Day on April 5th. All the themed “stuff” I made, with the exception of the floral arrangement, fits in one ziploc bag for storage. (Storage is always an issue in a rancher with no basement, no attic, and no garage.) Today, PG independently investigated a Klingon lesson after he did his German on Duolingo- how fun is that? Plans are being discussed on what to add for next time- a trivia game? Shrink plastic space ships in the windows? All I know is that I have found an outlet for my creativity that brings happiness to my Precious Grandson, and that's enough for me.

Live long and prosper my friends! 🖖