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Just the four of us

Today was the first day of the entire family’s Holiday vacation. I’m on vacation from work starting today until the 2nd, and all three of the boys’ last day of school was yesterday as well. Monica drove up early this morning with Sue to get Babcia, so it was just us four boys today.

Want to know what we did?

(spoilers ahead)

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Really want to know?

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Ok.

-The four of us lay under the blankets in Mom and Dad’s big bed singing the trademark Three Stooges choral introduction “Hello, hello, helloooo…Hello!” for 30 minutes until we got it just right.
-Sean (11) babysat Paul (9) and Luke (3) while dad went to Tim Horton’s for a duzzin assorted donutz, three hot chocolates with candy cane sprinkles, and one cafe mocha.
-The instant Luke had a mouthful of donut, he took a drink of too-hot cocoa and began screaming that his mouth was burning, spewing a stream of soggy chocolatey donut goo all over his shirt, crying, and screaming. AT THAT INSTANT the telephone AND the doorbell both rang. Mr Mom trifecta!
-Dad took a 2 hour nap. Leaving the boys COMPLETELY unsupervised. And I wasn’t even drunk!
-Dad made the best from-scratch macaroni and cheese on the face of the planet. Five cheeses (american, cheddar, provolone, parmigiano, and goat chevre), butter, cream, milk, black pepper, red pepper, garlic, and twisty noodles. You wish you could have some.
-Dad gave Luke a bath.
-Mom has been feeling overwhelmed this week not only due to the impending holiday but because the laundry had grown, genetically mutated, and took over half of the second floor with demands for ‘more brains’. So Dad did all the boy’s laundry and the towels and linens and with the boys’ help put away and hung up all the clothes including some of Monica’s that she hadn’t gotten to yet, and including some restructuring of the linen closet disaster.
-Under Dad’s command the big boys cleaned both their old shared room and the office-which-we-are-making-into-Sean’s-room to prepare for each of the boys having their own room, our Christmas gift to them (and a sneaky way of teaching hygiene, personal responsibility, overcoming fears, and improving sleep habits).
-Dad ordered tickets for him and the big boys to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra on Thursday! Woo hoo! TSO! They have one song where giant ice cannons shoot out live polar bears, each carrying a giant golden glockenspiel and hammering out ‘Carol of the Bells’ with pickaxes while a Cossack on a flaming horse shreds a two-necked guitar. And that’s just the opener!
-Dad ignored his goddamed Blackberry ALL DAY!!!!
-Luke made Dad put Vince Guaraldi’s ‘Linus and Lucy’ on repeat for 2 hours while he played with phonics letters and watched Noggin.
-Monica got back, we ate Chinese delivery with Sue’s family (well, sort of, since Neko was screaming and burning up with a fever, Luke refused to eat, and Bill had to leave with Neko) and then the guests went back to Sue’s house.
-Monica is relaxing upstairs, so it’s just the four of us boys downstairs watching Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Which makes a very nice bookend to match the start of our day.

Merry Christmas, all.

Posted by mark beadles in Uncategorized | No Comments »