Late

The kids and I went over to Karen and Jim's last night to ring in the new year with appetizers and the chocolate fountain that the girls picked out for BJ and I for Christmas.  BJ went to Brandon's to play games.  Jack finally went to bed around 10?  10:30?  I don't know, by then I'd had a lot of wine.  My girls and Karen's boys all made it to midnight.  We all gave kisses, put on one last movie, and Karen and I went upstairs convinced that the kids would be asleep in seconds.

Owen came upstairs at 1:45 am to tell us that the movie had ended!  He and Mary Grace somehow willed themselves to stay awake for the whole thing.  We sent him back down to the basement to sleep and BJ and I drove the half mile home, convinced that none of the kids would stir until morning.

Jim heard Jack at 4 am saying, "Mama?  Mama?" in the kitchen.  Karen retrieved him and spent the next two hours trying to get him back to sleep (she's tenacious - I would have given up after about 20 minutes and driven his little butt home!).  She called us at 8:30 to let us know that he was awake and cheerful and that we ought to come get him before that changed.  We had breakfast over there, gathered up all our stuff, and came home.  We spent the day here, mostly cleaning and organizing.

He took one heck of a long nap this afternoon, but Jack was otherwise cheerful.  The girls got a little fussy toward bedtime.  They were picking at each other and bickering.  I could tell just from the look on Mary Grace's face that she was exhausted.

"Listen, Sis, we're going to eat supper, then we're going to have a nice bath and go to bed.  You just have to hold it together for like 45 minutes, ok?  And then you can rest.  But I want you to remember how you feel right now.  This is why Dad and I want you to get a good night's sleep every night.  It feels really crummy inside when you're tired, doesn't it?"

The tears spilled from her eyes.  "Yes, it does feel very crummy," she sobbed.

"I know.  It's very hard to control yourself when you're too tired.  You just want to yell at everyone, don't you?" she nodded.  Claire snuggled into my shoulder and cried, too.  "I know it's hard.  I'm grouchy too.  We'll get through it.  Dinner will be here soon* and then we'll take a bath and go to bed, and tomorrow will be better."

So they went back into the family room to do whatever they do in there, and I went back to trying to organize the MP3s on my computer.  After a few minutes, they must have started to get into it again, because I heard Claire say, sternly, "Mary Grace!  We have to hold it together for 45 more minutes!"  Miracle of miracles, MG listened, and the delivery driver showed up a moment later.  Dinner, bath, bed, and we all survived.

It's a good thing New Years only happens once a year!



* Mommy got about 5 hours of sleep last night, too.  If ever there were a time to order in, this was it!