Sleep-over! Just Kidding.

Last year in early December I let the girls have a cookie and ornament-making extravaganza. It was out of control non-stop fun. I didn't have it in me this year. When Kate started requesting it I told her that maybe, instead, she could have a couple of friends come have a sleep-over. She asked if Catherine and Margaret could come. She would gladly have invited the entire Third Avenue Gang, but I thought 2 was about as many as I could manage, and even then, I would require ample reinforcements.

So the kids came over with Kore and Brendan and as planned, we fed everyone pizza. The girls got hot cocoa with homemade marshmallows while the grown-ups imbibed and chatted in the kitchen, a safe distance from the kids. Just like God intended. Monkey hung out with the girls. you can see the slightest wisp of brindle there between Catherine and Kate on the couch. That's the M-Dawg. We knew it was unlikely that these youngin's would be up for an actual sleep-over. When both Catherine and Margaret professed their desire to stay over, we ushered them upstairs for potty, tooth-brushing and story time. All those things went off without a hitch.



Then it was time to actually go to sleep. That's where the difficulty arose. By 9:15 Kore was weary of the trips up the stairs and we all agreed that these kids were never going to go to sleep. If they were older, we'd have just left them to it. They're not, though, and we're all tired. So the girls would go home. This caused literal wailing and gnashing of teeth. To our amusement, yet another gathering ended with Brendan slinging Catherine over his shoulder and hauling her off to her bed while she screamed like a banshee the whole way home. Then our girls were devastated. They've only just now stopped whimpering and begging me to go back in their room. We will try this again. Probably not tomorrow.

Two Cool Local Cats, Rex and Pete.