A Million Sticky Pieces

"Well, seeing as how Paper, Rock, Scissors turned out, I'll assemble the play kitchen, and you can finish putting the horse together."

Morning Readers,

Now that I have three kids, boredom seems to be my biggest problem. At least, I think it is. That's the only reason I can attach to what we bought for Christmas. Two days have passed, the gift wrap has settled, and I, thankfully still have things to fill my time. You can't imagine the huge relief, as I was just thinking to myself,

..."Woe is me. For there are several days left in this year, and I have nothing to occupy myself. If only there was something, SOMETHING, which would stave off the the loads of free time I find myself with while tending to these children. For, if I find myself with those ten free seconds in the bathroom, like I did yesterday, there needs to be something to fill the void."

And then Santa arrived and brought with him the answer.

Husband called to me. "What are you doing?"

"Thanking my lucky stars I'm not wandering around twiddling my thumbs. I just changed three diapers, and got scared I'd have nothing to do before lunch. Then I found all this candy cane stuck to the couch, and breathed a sigh of relief. I'll tell ya what."

"We're the luckiest."

I sighed. "I know. When I got up at six this morning, I thought all I'd have to do was make breakfast, but I stopped panicking when I realized I'd be getting to hold the baby and put this race car track together. And people say bottle feeding and screwdrivers don't go together."

"They just don't know."

Gingerly, I wiped chocolate off the shirt I'd been wearing for forty-eight hours. "And gathering up all the bits of paper and packaging was a nice warm up, but my anxiety came back when I thought I'd get a nap. Luckily, Sundance needed me to help her with three different outfit changes."

"Thank goodness for kids hopped up on Peppermint Patties and Hershey Santas. I think I saw one of them snort a candy cane."

"Indeed."

I considered. "You know, I hear some people spend the day resting on Christmas, and I just don't know what to make of that."

"Lots of people have a hard time enjoying the holidays, honey."

Nodding, I pulled a piece of racetrack out of my bra. "Probably don't know what they're missing. There's nothing like a child's rabid smile as you yank them, by one foot, out of their little brother's bassinet. After Butch had that hundredth piece of chocolate, he really wanted that musical puppy Doc got."

"Can't blame him."

"Yep. I just appreciated skipping a hot lunch to save that stuffed dog. Doc's almost four months old, though, he really needs to start standing his ground. Baby hook to the right. Baby hook to the left. That sort of thing."

"They're good kids."

"They're great kids."

"Great Christmas?"

"Great Christmas."

"Join me for a case of beer and some curling in the fetal position?"

"Absolutely. Right after we put the kids in bed. The lights just went out, and I think they're hunting us with those new flashlights they got from Grandma and Grampa."

"Merry Christmas."

I smiled and yanked three whole candy canes out of my hair. "Merry Christmas."


Until Next Time, Readers!