Tag: holidays (Page 11 of 19)

Early December Notes

December 4, 2014 / DB

Man, have we had trouble getting the girls to put Christmas lists together this year. In years past, we normally had detailed lists from all three well before Thanksgiving. Followed by daily updates.

This year, though, has been much harder. L. gave us a list about a week ago. C. and M. both started lists, but they kept disappearing or were never handed over. One day last week, when I asked the girls if they had their lists ready, M. snapped at me, “Why do you need to see it?”

She might know what’s up, but she sure ain’t rocking the boat and risking losing out on gifts.

I think part of the problem is that we have received almost no toy catalogs in the mail this year. It seems like Target usually sends out a big toy catalog the weekend after Halloween, and the girls spend the next couple days fighting over it as they mark the things they want. That catalog never came this year.

An unlikely helper finally got the girls in gear. All three girls took a liking to the Brookstone catalog that came over Thanksgiving break. By Sunday night we had lists from all three girls. Or, rather, all three girls handed me sealed envelopes addressed to Santa at the North Pole that I was supposed to put in the mailbox Monday morning.

When we looked at the lists that night, we cracked up. C. listed out 13 things, all from Brookstone. She was very precise in providing us with names. She wants a Crosley ® CD Jukebox. And an Aqua-Jet® Foot Spa. And several other items that she listed the brand name, followed by the ® sign. We thought that was all kinds of awesome.

M. was giving us problems because she kept asking for exactly three things, and none of them all that fun. Which bums me out a little. She might be down with Santa publicly, but I hate that she’s beginning to ask for practical gifts rather than “kid” things. We’ll see if and how this changes over the next couple weeks.

Each year I put together a picture calendar for us and that we give as a gift to the grandparents. It’s always fun to review all the pictures we took over the past year. I do notice that I’m taking fewer pictures than I used to. And I take almost no videos any more.

What I like the most is putting together the December page. I try to slap as many pictures from Christmases past as will fit. I love watching the girls change in 12-month increments on that page.

Finally, I let the girls watch Home Alone last night. Believe it or not, I had never seen it before, either. Since it came out when I was in college, I’m pretty sure I thought it was stupid at the time, and hated how it dominated pop culture for so long and made Macaulay Culkin a star.

So what did I think? I was a little surprised. I always had it in my mind that the entire movie was Culkin trying to keep Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern out of his home. So it was weird to me that all that was only a 15-20 minute stretch at the end.

A lot of the acting was poor. The first half draaaaaags. Culkin grated on me rather than charmed.

But the girls liked it, which I guess is the most important thing.

I was reading up on Home Alone today and it serves as another reminder of how much pop culture has changed in the last quarter-century. It was the #1 movie for 12 straight weeks, which rarely happens anymore. What is really crazy, though, is that it stayed in the top ten into April of 1991, and popped back into the top ten two more times that summer. So a movie that was released before Thanksgiving was still in theaters deep into the following summer. These days it would have been out on DVD and streaming video before Easter.

Holiday Jihad #1

December 2, 2014 / DB

Yes, that hallowed holiday tradition is back. It’s time for the first Holiday Jihad of 2014!

This one just baffles me. Last week I added my annual bookmark for the site Christmas TV Schedule, so I can be sure to record the best shows of the season. I scrolled through to find the highlights and noticed one show in particular was hard to find. I hit Command-F[1], typed in “Grinch,” and reviewed the results. Plenty of showings for the full-length movie starring Jim Carrey. But only one, on Christmas night, for the original cartoon.

Just to be safe, I did some more digging on the web. Sure enough, that is the only December showing of the cartoon. TBS did play it twice before Thanksgiving. But no other network or cable TV airings until the kids are coming down from their Christmas morning buzzes.

WTF?

How the hell do you show it twice in Novembe – once in the middle of the month – and not a single time in the first four weeks of December? It’s right up there with Rudolph and Frosty and Charlie Brown for classic, essential holiday cartoons. But apparently I have to either go buy the DVD or get it from Amazon or iTunes if we want to see it before Christmas night.

Unacceptable.

And for that, TBS and the rest of the major broadcast and cable networks earn my first Holiday Jihad of the year.

Control-F to you PC users. ↩

Thanksgiving Notes

December 1, 2014 / DB

So, I’m putting this together beginning at 10:40 Sunday night. Christmas Vacation is on TV. The tree is lit. A Bell’s Christmas Ale is at my side. Yes, it is the most wonderful time of the year.

Man, the holiday weekend went by fast. It seems like minutes ago we were out to eat on Wednesday night, watching basketball on the big screens, and thinking of all that the four days ahead held. Allow me to catch you up.

As my Facebook friends know, we made some controversial decisions Wednesday night. On our way home from dinner, M. said to her sisters, “We’ll get our tree on Friday and order pizza. It’s Dad’s Christmas tradition.”

A few minutes later, she asked if we could watch a Christmas movie when we got home. I reminded her that it was also my tradition not to watch Christmas movies, or listen to Christmas music, until after Thanksgiving.

“Most of your traditions are good, but that one is dumb, Dad,” she shot back.

So we watched Elf.

When we got to the part where Buddy moves in with the Hobbs family and he decorates their entire house, C. disappeared upstairs. A few minutes later she returned with a stack of paper and scissors. Soon she had a bunch of paper snowflakes and paper rings, just like Buddy. More confirmation that Buddy the Elf is just a giant eight-year-old.

Later that evening, I threw caution to the wind and decided to watch the Thanksgiving Orphans episode of Cheers the night before Thanksgiving, rather than on Thanksgiving night itself. Which makes sense. Watch it in preparation for the big day, rather than as a wrap-up.

Although, and this is crazy, the original episode aired on Thanksgiving night, 1986. I remember ER used to have big Thanksgiving episodes. Isn’t everything either football, a holiday special, or a rerun these days?

Thanksgiving was a fine day. Excellent food. Good company. No arguments amongst the family! As always, the girls began the day watching the Macy’s parade. I was busy in the kitchen most of the time, but if I can hazard a guess, M. was explaining everything to her sisters, C. was making observations that M. immediately shot down, and L. was cheering for Spider Man.

A big Thanksgiving tradition is for Elfie, our Elf on the Shelf, to show up. And he did, right on schedule, and the girls were very excited to receive him. C. wrote him a note over the weekend that said:

Dear Elfie. Do you now (sic) how to read and right (sic)? Do you want to be my pen pal?¹

So, like a good dad, I wrote her a note back, left-handed of course. After she read it, C. to S., “Mom, Elfie has bad handwriting!”

Today I found a note from M. asking if he would be her pen pal too. L. needs to get on it.

Friday we went out not-so-bright and early to get our tree. Not-so-bright because it was cold with heavy, snowy clouds blocking the sun. We went to our usual spot, picked out our usual Fraser Fir, and only deviated from our routine when it came time to load the tree. For the past seven years, we’ve thrown it inside the minivan to bring it home. No van this year means it went on top of the SUV. Which really isn’t that big of a deal, but the girls thought it was pretty great.

We got the tree up and most of the decorations in place by that evening. The new outside decorations worked as planned, and made the girls happy. We still have a couple things to get set up but, for the most part, the decorating is complete.

Watched a lot of football and basketball. I watched every KU basketball game on delay, usually making generous use of the fast forward button during breaks. A solid weekend. The kids are growing up, but they still have a ways to go.

The capper to the weekend came on Sunday, when S. and I were the beneficiaries of some corporate largesse and attended the Colts game for free. In a suite!

I can’t think of a better game to go to. Some early worries, a big rebound, and tons of big plays. Much better than the last Colts game I went to, the final game of the Peyton Manning era.

One thing I thought was incredible was how loud Andrew Luck is barking out the snap count. We were about a third of the way up in the stands, straight up from the goal line. Even when the Colts were on the opposite 20, if they were facing us, we could hear Luck yelling out to his linemen. He’s pretty good throwing the ball, too. Although my step-dad told me he was overrated and terrible on Thanksgiving.

Hopefully each of you had fine weekends, too, and are now basking in the glory of the Christmas music season.

Spelling errors left because they are still charming. ↩

Turkey Day Tradition

November 26, 2014 / DB

This is better suited for a Friday Links post, but since I just saw it today and it’s relevant to tomorrow’s holiday, I thought I would go ahead and share it today.

I think I had heard of this before, but never read the details. In 1939, President Roosevelt decided to change the date of Thanksgiving to add another week of Christmas shopping. The hope was that extra week would give a boost to the struggling economy.

His decision did not go over well.

Republicans pounced, and used the move to portray Roosevelt as a power-mad tyrant. In an early example of Godwin’s Law, FDR’s recent presidential opponent Alf Landon said Roosevelt sprung his decision on “an unprepared country with the omnipotence of a Hitler.” Senator Styles Bridges of New Hampshire suggested that while Roosevelt was at it, he should abolish winter.

As you will read, for three years Thanksgiving was held on different days in different states until a new, permanent date was established that we still use today.

Politics, man.

But we do have a precedent for my brilliant idea of a year or two ago: moving Christmas to late January. Come on, Obama, do it!

The executive action that tore a nation apart

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Pre-Thanksgiving Notes

November 25, 2014 / DB

A busy few days between get-togethers, kid activities, and prepping for Thanksgiving.

How about a few notes?

M. has kicked off her volleyball career. She’s been to one skills session and another evaluation session as the fourth graders at St. P’s get slotted onto the appropriate team for their first year of CYO play. I haven’t watched any of her practices, but I’m hopeful that she can hang in there and make the occasional pass or serve it over the net, rather than be fearful of the ball.

Last week I told her how I played a ton of volleyball in my 20s, often in two leagues at once at my former employer, and that seemed to interest her. She was especially impressed when I told her my team won the 4-on–4 league one year.

“So did you get, a really big trophy?”
“Nope. Just a t-shirt that said ‘Champions’ on it. But we wore them to the gym all the time so everyone knew.”
“Cool!”

I’d love it if she got some of her dad’s hyper-competitiveness on the court. But I just hope she has fun.

Saturday was fairly warm here, so I spent a solid chunk of the day cleaning up leaves and doing some pre-winter trimming of bushes. I was following the KU score, but didn’t feel any urgency to get inside and watch as Oklahoma pounded them. Of course, when I saw how many yards Samaje Perine had, I made it inside to see his record-breaking run.

A pretty pathetic performance by the KU defense, which had shown marked improvement in recent weeks. Also a shame to see Tony Sands fall two places in two weeks on the all-time, single-game rushing list.

Which brings up a good story. The day Sands ran for his then-record 396 yards, it was cold and nasty in Lawrence. A lot of people stayed home as KU played a pretty weak MU team. A few of us, though, stayed through the final rush that put Sands above Marshall Faulk’s record. We even slapped Tony on his shoulder pads as he walked off the field.

But one friend was apparently very sick that day. He claims he had pneumonia, a terrible fever, and could barely breath. He tried to make it out the door when he heard Sands’ yardage building up on the radio. But he was too weak to make it out. Or so he insisted.

We still give him grief about that. We have downgraded whatever illness he had to sniffles and a tickle in his throat, while he now claims he was on death’s doorstep.

So, of course, I sent out a message yesterday wondering if any OU students sneezed a couple times and decided to stay in their dorm room and watch the game rather than walk to the stadium and stand in the rain for 3+ hours and thus missed seeing Perine go off first hand.

Good times.

A week ago we went out on a snowy Sunday and bought a bunch of new outdoor Christmas decorations. Don’t worry, they’re neither put outside nor lit up yet. There are plenty of people around our neighborhood who flipped theirs on over the weekend. It’s one thing to put them up on a warm day when you know you may not have another chance. It’s another thing completely to go ahead and turn them on before Thanksgiving. When will this war on Thanksgiving cease?

I do have to admit, though, I’ve already checked a bunch of our lights, I have things organized for easy unpacking on Friday and Saturday when it is time to get all the decorations out. But not until I watch my Cheers “Thanksgiving Orphans” episode and drink something tasty!

Our Thanksgiving preparations are pretty locked in. Still some cleaning to do around the house, but we’ve had an overnight guest and a small gathering over the past week so a lot of the heavy cleaning has already been knocked out. We’ll have 17 or 18, I can’t keep track, for a late afternoon dinner. We’re only doing a few of the sides and some of the dessert, so while I’ll be busy getting those things together, it won’t be a full day of cooking for us.

I’m sure many of you have been holding your breath for this news, but I believe I will begin unveiling my favorite songs of the year on December 8. This year I’ll share two songs a day so we’ll be wrapped up on Dec. 19, when I imagine a lot of you will be knocking off for a week or more. I’m listening to the song that will be #1 right now, no hints though. The top 10 is very strong. The second ten, well there’s some significant drop-off there.

Boys high school basketball began last tonight in Indiana. Tonight I’m covering one of my southern teams that is coming up north. I have a few girls games logged already, but it’s always interesting to do the boys for the first time. The girls team I’ve covered is very fast up-and-down the court, but the boys are usually a couple steps faster and it takes a quarter or two to get used to the pace so I’m getting my stats recorded while also keeping an eye on the action.

Halloween Wrap Up

November 3, 2014 / DB

Worst Halloween ever?

As far as the weather was concerned, I think the answer was a resounding yes here in central Indiana.

It was just a nasty night. It was cold, wet, windy, and miserable. Temps were in the mid–30s, the winds were gusting at close to 30 MPH, which made the steady rain come down sideways. There really was no way to stay dry. So none of us were disappointed when the rain turned to snow. At least then it was coming down in chunky flakes rather than sheets of water.

Two years ago it was just as cold, but it was dry. Last year we had severe storms blow through, but they came with enough warning that the city and neighborhood pushed trick or treating back a night, to a gorgeous fall evening. This year topped those in terms of shitty weather.

I’m not sure the girls minded. They didn’t love it, but they were also undeterred to get out and get some candy. We joined with our neighbors plus some of their friends and had a pack of 15 or so kids. In the time we were out, I didn’t see another 15 kids total. It looked like most families were bagging it. And, judging by how many people did not answer their doors, I think they were just handing the candy they bought over to their kids and then turned the lights off.

Fortunately our kids tired of the weather pretty quickly. We didn’t spend much more than half an hour outside. We hit all the neighbors, swung by the home that turns their garage into a haunted house, and then cruised over to my sister- and brother-in-law’s where we warmed up and refilled before heading home.

We had left a bowl of candy with a note telling kids to take a few pieces at our front door. When we got home, it was still nearly full. I told our girls that they’ll always remember this Halloween, when most kids wimped out and stayed home but they went out.[1]

Oh, costumes. M. went as a girl Minion from Despicable Me, C. was Madeline Hatter from the Ever After High series, and L. went as Scooby Doo.

And now the holiday season is upon us. We actually bought a new Christmas wreath for our front door today. Just over three weeks away from watching the Cheers “Thanksgiving Orphans” episode and buying a Christmas tree a few hours later.

Reminds me of January 1, 2000, a Saturday. John N, Sean M., and I headed out, thinking “It’s Saturday. We should go to all the places we normally go.” Only no one was out, still recovering from ringing in the new millennium. We’re still pretty proud of our performance that night. ↩

Joys Of Parenting -or- Serenity Now

April 28, 2014 / DB

Way, way back I wrote, rather brilliantly I think, that being the parent of a two-year-old is a constant reminder that you are an utter failure. Those little beasts are just constantly challenging you, and often by the end of the day, you’re at your wits’ ends and barely clinging to your sanity.

The bad thing is those trying moments never really go away, they just come from different angles and although not the constant barrage of toddler-dom, are sometimes even more stressful as your kids get older.

This past weekend should have been fantastic. The weather was gorgeous both days. We had our family Easter celebration scheduled for Sunday. The swim team the girls will be joining in five weeks had an informational meeting later Sunday to get the season kicked off. We got lots of things done around the house.

Despite all of that, I spent most of Sunday in a pretty profound funk because I was thoroughly fed up with my daughters. There was a massive meltdown Saturday morning when one daughter returned from a sleep-over.1 Later two sisters, who have been struggling in each other’s company lately, got into it multiple times. There was whining, fighting, disobedience, clingy-ness all damn day. Things wrapped up when one sister knocked the other out of line to swing, and on her ass, at a friend’s house. It’s always a fun moment when I, while gritting my teeth, shout, “THAT’S IT! TIME TO GO!” and march them away in front of other parents and kids.

Sunday had all kinds of other nonsense. Unfortunately for my girls, I began the day with a bad mood hangover from Saturday and they never got any slack from me. More arguing, whining, tears, complaints, inattentiveness to parental requests. By the end of the day I was walking around stewing about everything. Each time I found bits of granola bar sprinkled over the rug, or piles of cereal under the table, or the leftover bits of Easter candy (from last week) in the sunroom that had attracted an army of ants, my mood darkened more. By bedtime I was barely talking to any of them.

I keep telling myself that our girls are, mostly, good kids. They don’t get into trouble at school. We don’t get reports that the behavior we see at home is repeated in school or at homes of friends. I suppose that’s a trade I’m willing to make: my sanity in exchange for children who behave with manners and respect in public.

A good friend told me, shortly before I got married, that marriage was the hardest thing she had ever done. I didn’t know at the time that she was separated and would be divorced from her husband a year later. She was speaking from (bad) experience.

I agree that marriage is hard work. But I think parenting is much harder. I feel like any problems you have with your spouse can be discussed in rational terms. Every parent knows that logic often doesn’t hold when attempting to get your children to behave. Your spouse may drive you crazy, but it seems like we can eventually understand the behavior of adults. Kids…they will drive you mad as you attempt to figure out why the hell they’re disobeying rules that have been in place for years, or continue to exhibit patterns of behavior that you’ve made clear over and over again are not acceptable.

Things were better this morning. I’ve vowed to put this weekend behind us, and will work to be more patient and understanding. That might be the most important thing we can do as parents. Find a way to somehow get beyond all the nonsense.

But I always know more idiotic behavior is right around the corner.

And mine aren’t even teenagers yet…

Serenity Now!

I’m not naming which kid did what so that the blame gets spread evenly. They were all knuckleheads, though, so no one gets off lightly. ↩

Final Holiday Wrap Up

January 2, 2014 / DB

Happy New Year! We woke to 4-5” of new snow on the ground, with even more predicted for Saturday night. The girls are excited. I’m excited I can finally get them outside of the house for awhile.

With apologies to all the fans of Epiphany out there, the holiday season has officially ended. Yesterday we took our tree to the recycling pile at the park and packed up all our decorations. That does not mean I can’t empty out the notebook and share a few more holiday stories with you.

As we were taking the tree down, L. began calling it Cathy. Soon the other two were doing the same. They would run into the living room, touch the branches and say, “Oh, I’m going to miss you so much, Cathy!” “Good bye, Cathy!” “We love you, Cathy!” And so on. As the family Christmas tree expert, I admired their devotion to the tree. But, I also wondered, why give it a name the last day we have it? Shouldn’t they have named it back in November?

The girls each received a total of $25 from various relatives over the holidays. They were begging us to spend it – apparently all the new gear they picked up on Christmas day was not enough – so we took them to Toys R Us Tuesday evening.

The best way to describe Toys R Us on New Years Eve is that it reminded me of one of the old Mad Max movies. The place was a wreck. Shelves were half-empty. Nothing was organized. There were all kinds of items on display that had been returned, with bits of tape and wrapping paper on them. Some boxes had even been opened and crudely taped back together. Other items had apparently been lost back in storage, and were covered in dust, brought out in an attempt to fill some of the empty shelf space. There were rows of items with no price tags on them.

I guess they don’t restock and clean up the place until after New Years. It didn’t bother the girls, though. They each managed to spend their money.

We received a couple Christmas cards this year with kind of uncomfortable pictures of college-aged kids. One shot had a sister draped around her brother, who was sitting in a chair. Their parents mimicked their pose in another chair. One of my sisters-in-law saw the picture and asked, “So are they a couple or brother and sister? Because I would never hang on either of my brothers that way.”

Another card featured siblings on or near a beach. The brother had his arm around his sister. S. took a look at it and said, “His hand is kind of close to her boob, isn’t it?”

Sooooo that’s how it is in your family.

Remember, kids. Take a long look at those cards before you send them out next year.

We’ve had AT&T Uverse for nearly four years now. It’s ok. I’m not a huge fan nor have we had any issues. Each December they roll out a Santa Tracker channel that has games, holiday karaoke, read-along kids books, and a Santa News Network area that gives updates on the big man’s preparations and travels.

The girls love it. That despite the fact it’s been the same each of the past three Christmases. Same “anchors” on the SNN, with the same scripts and updates. Same games and books. They still checked it every half hour on Christmas Eve, when his progress around the globe is updated.

Worse, it’s all still in standard definition and seems to chug through the data pipe at about half-speed. Each time the girls tried to do karaoke, the song would freeze multiple times so it could buffer. For basic graphics and some compressed audio.

You would think a multi-billion dollar company like AT&T would invest a little to keep the channel updated to show off the power of its network. As it is now, it’s like the original iPhone on the old EDGE network, before they slapped a 3G or LTE radio into it.

I was also bummed AT&T hid the Yule Log station in a section of channels I rarely check. I think I finally found it on Christmas Eve. Nothing better than reading a book in front of a fake fire with some soothing, instrumental Christmas tunes in the background.

I’ve documented many times here on the blog how I dislike January and February. I hate their bleakness, coldness, and emptiness.

For many people, having Christmas and New Years back-to-back is perfect. Schools let out for two weeks. People take vacation time from work. We can cram all kinds of parties and family gatherings into a couple weeks. Retailers get a nice boost to the bottom line to close out the year.

But I think Christmas should be a month later. Yeah, I know this really only applies to those of us in the northern latitudes, but we really need something to spice up January and make the worst part of winter pass quicker. Besides, a lot of Christmas songs are better suited to the colder, snowier times of January than the often rainier, less predictable days of December. I often find myself humming “Let It Snow,” or “Winter Wonderland,” among others, when we get a big snowstorm in January.

Jesus was not born on December 25. That’s an arbitrary date picked by a Roman emperor, and later cemented by Pope Gregory, hundreds of years ago. So there’s no real reason to keep it there.

So the next presidential candidate that proposes moving Christmas back a month has my vote. No matter how nutty their other ideas might be.

365/0

December 31, 2013 / DB

That’s what the family calendar on the refrigerator shows this morning. Three hundred sixty-five days down, zero to go. Which means, though the sun will rise in the morning and the normal work-week will continue (for some) on Thursday, today is still an end and tomorrow another beginning.

2013 was, for the most part, great for our family. Three big family trips (Disney in January, spring break in Florida, Boston for a family wedding). Girls soccer and swimming and tennis lessons. L. in pre-K. S. in a new job. Plenty of water fun, despite the relatively cool and wet summer. One winter that lasted too long, followed by another than began too early.

Then there was the Pacers pushing the Heat to a game seven. The Royals’ August run. Wiggins joining the Jayhawks. Peyton coming home and getting beat. Another division title for the Colts. And a bunch of fun and interesting high school sports assignments for me.

The year was not perfect. No year is. But we were spoiled rotten. I think we used our travel allotment up for awhile, so it’s going to be basketball and good TV shows that get us through this winter instead of counting down the days until we head to warmer climes.

If you’re celebrating tonight, be safe. And may your 2014 have more good than bad, more health than illness, and more laughter than tears.

Holiday Weekend

December 30, 2013 / DB

I woke up early this morning, for no real reason. I had been sleeping until 8:00, even 8:30, much of the past week. Something caused me to wake up shortly after 6:00 today, though, and after trying to fall back to sleep, I gave up. I went downstairs, made coffee, and enjoyed the silence of the morning with my current book. S. was off to work early and the girls all kept with their holiday trend of sleeping in. It was wonderful.

Then the girls got up. First L. at a hair before 8:00. The other two came down about 20 minutes later. Within seconds M. was bossing everyone around and being rude to C.. While eating their breakfasts, C. and L. were arguing about everything and L. was complaining that C. kept touching her.

Silence, and tranquil morning, broken.

Shame I wasn’t dropping them all back at school today.

Our big event of the weekend was the first family trip to an ice skating rink. This came almost exactly 28 years after my first, and last, attempt at ice skating over Christmas break of my freshman year of high school. Fortunately S. can skate, and we went with our neighbors, who can all skate, too.

Our girls took to the ice very well. They all used plastic walkers to stabilize themselves as they got comfortable. It took about a minute for C. to take off running with her walker, absolutely comfortable and in full-on, excited C. mode. L. was slower, but equally calm right away. And M. was much more cautious, as I could have predicted, but found her footing surprisingly soon. By the end of the evening, she was actually skating around on her own, albeit next to the boards and with her friend right next to her. C. and L. both took turns with skating adults holding a hand and doing most of the work on their own.

What about dad? I made a pathetic loop of the rink, either hanging on to L.’s walker with her, or clinging to the boards. After that lap, which seemed to take about an hour, I wisely got my ass off the ice and stayed out of everyone’s way. I really should have picked it up when I was eight, because it sure ain’t happenin’ now.

The girls can’t wait to go back. I’ll need to find some aunts or other friends who can join them on the ice. I think I’ll just watch from the stands next time.

M., C., and I played our first game of Monopoly together Friday. It took about three hours over three lengthy sessions. C. was enthusiastic, but didn’t grasp the economic component of the game. She once bid $550 for an auctioned property that was listed at $200. I believe the bid before she went big was $115. I gave her the option of backing out, but she was excited to be buying something and went ahead. Of course, she’s in first grade so the consequences of spending too much are kind of lost on her. No surprise, she was the first to get eliminated.

M. hung on a little longer, but dug herself a hole and had to sell off all her properties, which I snatched up. The end was swift and just, but she was gung-ho to play again soon after.

We were playing by the traditional rules, since I hadn’t played since grade school, but I think we’ll make the switch to the faster-paced version the next time we try.

Times, and interests, change. But parents and kids playing board games together is one of the great, enduring traditions of Christmas break.