My brother and sister are in town which means that we either stay up too late talking or we stay up too late reading. Last night we were lined up on the couch with books and bowls of Joe's Honey Os. 

I am always a little tired when visitors stay at my house. I don't sleep enough and even when I am in bed, there is something like electric static in my brain that keeps me rolling around trying to position my pillow just right.

We were riding in the car the other day and I realized that there were two sets of three siblings all in the car together.

Tonight Dave and my brother went to see Barenaked Ladies, Emily is babysitting for a family down the street and I put the kids to bed at 7pm. It is nice to sit in the silence, dishes littering the house, a hot plate of never ending thanksgiving leftovers next to me.

Our turkey feast covered every inch of the island in the kitchen with delish food, brought and shared by our family and Coco's family and their out of town guests. We ate and ate and ate and then played 3-1-0 (a version of charades) and then we ate more, told jokes, talked about old movies that are still good and movies that make us cry like a baby. I wore a black velvet dress.

The kids are glad to have Thanksgiving over with so we can start counting down the days until Christmas. I fucking love Christmas. It fills me with a type A frenzy of list making and wrapping. I don't know what it is exactly, but there is some sort of Christmas switch in my brain and when it is on, then I am completely obsessed with the Spirit. But this year the kids want to know who Baby Jesus is. (Doh!) I think I have to go to the library this week and get some books. I need a little literary help explaining, seeing as how I have about as much biblical understanding as a rock. Even though I love Nativity sets, I think I'd mess up the story of Christ's birth if I tried to spontaneously articulate it.

While I am making a list and checking it twice an hour, Tess is completely obsessed with the potty. She doesn't #2in her diaper anymore (unless she is with ‘someone' who is shopping for a dress on Hawthorne and isn't paying attention when Tess is saying Potty Me!). Tess has figured out how to push the stool up against the toilet and put in the padded blues clues seat and sit down herself. She can even flush and wave goodbye to her poop and then pretend to wash her hands. It is all great except that she wants a personal escort to the potty 500 times a day. She is always completely naked so she can ‘Me Do It' which means that she now prefers being naked and doesn't want to wear clothes at all.

Simon is handling this turmoil of visitors and holidays better than I expected. He is red cheeked and worn out but not completely falling apart. He recently invented a game with Tess where he holds her hands, she goes completely limp, and he drags her around while she laughs and laughs. I am not sure if this is a good game or one that will dislocate her arm.

Sammy is bored and I have not done any homework with him this week. I am tired of homework every day and I think we both need a break. We also didn't get our weekly date so he is a little pissed about that. When he went to bed I promised that tomorrow we'd write our next date night on the calendar.

Cheers, dears!

If you know me in real life, maybe you know I was raised in a family of game loving freaks. As I grew up there was game playing all the time all around me. My mom says I used to like games until my younger brother got old enough to win and then I refused to play because I hated to lose. I'll confess that there is truth to that. If I get a losing feeling, then I don't want to play anymore.

But I do love me some Yahtzee. I'll play that anywhere, anytime. I almost bid once on eBay for some antique dice made from bones.

The kids love games, and as a parent I am warming up to them again (plus I win more when I am playing against preschoolers). Now that Simon is up for some simple rules, we often play a game before the boys go to bed (after Tess is already down for the count).  Simon is a crazy man when it comes to games. He gets so enthusiastic about being included in a big kid activity and so confused about what the game rules are, that he sort of erupts into a pile of squirming somersaults. 

Simon understands card games like Go Fish or Uno, but he has a hard time holding his cards. He tries to spread them out around him but ends of sitting on some and bending others. I thought maybe I'd get him this for Christmas, but today he came up with a much better solution. Last night poor Simon puked all over the place and this morning he's still feeling a bit warm and eager only for toast. So this afternoon we played a bunch of card games in-between his own private Pixar Marathon. Here he is in his special sick day couch bed, wearing his favorite pajamas, and using his toes to fan his cards out so his hands are free to play.

Sammy and I don’t get enough time together these days. He says that people are crowding us all the time, and I have to agree. And while Tess and Simon are sponging up all the attention around here, Sammy is so independent and cheerful and helpful… He’s been growing up behind my back.

So we decided that Tuesday nights are our date night. After Tess and Simon go to bed, Sammy slips on his mood ring and shoes with no socks (which for the evening I don’t comment on) and we sneak out.

We crack up when we hang out. The first time we went to the pool. I thought we’d swim laps and ‘talk’ but we just ended up inventing a ridiculous synchronized swimming routine and laughing at each other.

Tonight I thought we’d go plays Ziggity at a coffee shop, but no sooner than we had sat down then we were told they were closing. So we drove around with our peppermint hot chocolates looking for a place to hang out and Sammy starts to rap in the backseat. It won’t sound as funny now, but I was about to piss in my pants. He was just carrying on and on “Go Mama – Go Mama – It gets dark when it is dark and the lights aren’t on – Yo – Yo - Yo – Go Mama – Go”