Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden:
We’re winding down from the Super Bowl party now; and Naomi and Aiden are staying for the night because we didn’t fool our parents at all with our non-co-ed sleepover plans that they’ll let us get away with anyway! Before we get to the football and party news of the day; let’s cover the rest of the story from yesterday.
We ended up being insanely-busy from the pre-dinner work through until we crashed and napped for a few hours after Mom and Dad got home and the last of the kids that didn’t spend the night got picked up and taken home. The Pizzeria pizza dinner adventure was scary for most of the girls and all of the clean-up helpers, but we all somehow had fun anyway without any problems with taking the food games and pranks too-far. The evening video games, movies, and other games and entertainment kept the kid-rated party going until late. We played too, but the junior babysitting work kept us on the go all of the time; and we were exhausted by the time we were able to go to sleep – and we are sure that we earned our pay for the jobs too! ;^)
With a gang of kids to feed and get ready for church this morning, we ended up skipping Tai Chi; split our time between cooking, cleaning, eating, and getting cleaned up and dressed for the day. After only having a nap and all of the work, we were ready for the music and comparative quiet that went along with the church service and Sunday school. Naomi and Aiden went home with their own families for lunch, and when we got home; there was work to do – cleaning guest and bath rooms; loads of laundry; and prep work for the Super Bowl party that Mom and Dad hosted today.
Yes, there were parties at the Inn and at Sheldon’s today too, but we decided to go with the home party and leave the extra tickets for the bigger parties for other neighbors to enjoy. We didn’t have a huge group for our party, but had quite a few of our own friends and their families at least stop in for visits; dinner was early so that the meal didn’t get in the way of the big game; and we mostly entertained the kids and teens. Yes, football is still a big deal around here, but Ethan and Aiden aren’t into it the way Michael and Tim still are – at least so far; and they were happy to help out with the video games in the lounge that was mostly for the guys while the girls played other games, music, or caught one or more of the chick flicks happening in the sunroom today. As for the actual football game, the Rams and Bengals didn’t really have a lot of local fan support; so the game watching never got personal for anyone in the house. The ‘hometown’ Rams earned a close, thirteen-to-ten lead by half time; the drama appropriately continued when the Bengals took the lead in the third-quarter by scoring another ten points to just three for the Rams; and then the big finale came down to a Rams’ touchdown in the closing minute-and-a-half that gave them the twenty-three to twenty victory. Congrats and condolences as appropriate; and it didn’t really matter to us; since we basically missed the entire game. ;^)
Our guests headed home soon after the end of the game – except for our best friends; and the four of us were drafted to help with the last round of clean-ups in the living room, kitchen, sunroom, and lounge. After too-much-food, bedtime snacks were not required; we split up to get ready for bed; and now we’re multi-tasking a movie, bedtime computing, and co-ed cuddle time. While we’ve played a lot this weekend – along with the work; we should also at least mention that there are more-serious events happening in the world that won’t get comparable attention in our journal despite being more important.
The tensions surrounding Ukraine have a lot of people concerned, but the truth of what is happening there isn’t easy to discern; and we’ll hope that the ‘imminent war’ that is being predicted by some of our government leaders won’t happen at all. The Presidents of both Ukraine and Russia insist that they aren’t planning or expecting any fighting between them; so let’s also hope that they are both right and being honest.
We can’t cover every story around the world, but will include the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests in Canada. That protest is against government Covid mandates including vaccine passports, mask mandates, and more. While another protest in the capitol city of any one country doesn’t always matter very much, this protest is proving different because it has spread across their country – and around the world. That’s entirely because those protests have shown that peaceful protests can be done – and make it very difficult for governments and police to control them. Unfortunately, that hasn’t kept authorities in other countries from cracking down on these protests in their countries, but that looks terrible for them; and just seems to be strengthening the support for all of the protesters.
We really don’t want to get into a rant about this tonight, but we do strongly suggest that the political leaders dealing with these protests around the world get a clue, since history has long-proved that trying to deny peaceful protests inevitably leads to something much-worse.
Okay, that’s enough for tonight. We’re going to wind down to co-ed, sofa sleepover nap time now; since we all want to be rested up and ready for Valentine’s Day tomorrow!
Until next time, this little blast from your near or distant past is written for you with love from Ethan Proctor and gang – twin junior Magi Masters of the Light and their very best forever friends!