Our last dinner and a movie night of the year was today’s highlight. Rowen had other family plans with the grandparents, so she wasn’t able to come; but everyone else was here, and we’ve had a lot of fun.
I helped Mom with Ethan and Ehlana after school while she worked on dinner and some baking that she had on the go; though we mostly stayed in the kitchen too so that we could talk with her and offer free taste-testing services. Aunt Leanne came over straight from work, and Uncle Adam, Aunt Deborah, and Nick joined us after closing the clinic for the weekend.
The dinner chat was mostly about the weekend plans, and though there was a lot of work to be done; Mom, Dad, and most of their friends were going to a Christmas party at Sheldon’s on Saturday night, and Ethan, Ehlana, and I were particularly interested in the babysitting plans that had been set up for the night. Alicia and her friends had been hired again; and would have a total of eleven kids. Since we were only going to have a couple of days until Christmas after getting out of school for the holiday; Aunt Leanne had also let me know that we had hair appointments with Vicky and Liz for Monday afternoon; though their appointments were before classes ended for the day, while Rowen and I would be going there straight from school. With Grandma and Grandpa coming home on Tuesday, the school concert on Wednesday afternoon, and a lot of work to fit in around the fun; we were all going to be in for a very busy week.
Since Dad was still on the road, and the boys were outnumbered; it was girls’ choice for the movie. We picked ‘A Princess for Christmas’, and though it is a total chick flick, our boys managed to survive; helped out by generous doses of cuddles, hugs and kisses from their favorite girls. I’d have felt bad about not picking something that they’d like better, but I was reminded all day by the boys at school that the football bowl season starts tomorrow; and that means that we’ll have a bit over three weeks of nearly daily testosterone overload.
Dad got home when we were about three-quarters of the way through the movie after being held up in Crystal Springs because of a worse than usual traffic snarl. We took a break while helping to get his luggage from the truck and drink and snack refills before settling in to finish the show. Ethan and Ehlana needed some extra time with Dad, so it was nearly eleven by the time we said goodnight to our guests and went upstairs for the night. Mom and Dad are taking care of getting Ethan and Ehlana nursed and off to sleep now; and I’m already changed and snuggled in bed with Mandy. I’m writing this and checking my email, but it’s going to be a long, busy weekend; so I’m going to skip the archive study that I should do tonight. I’ll just have to put in a bit more time on that next week. Don’t do an archive search on that – I’m sure that those famous last words have been written into my journal a lot over the years. Sometimes I even actually get around to finding time for that extra work!