First Day of Holiday Wigging

Well, gosh, I'm on time. I tend to start to freak out about my least favorite holiday right around two weeks prior, so I'm right on track for a total meltdown around Thanksgiving.

Yay.

Last year, I Xanaxed my way through it and sharpened my teeth some (this was before I got my mouthguard to prevent my grinding all my teeth down in my sleep). I couldn't get my crap in one sack quickly enough to figure a way out of Having A Lovely Family Thanksgiving, so I capitulated and wasn't that nice. This year the sense of tension and obligation is already racked up pretty high for various reasons, and I figured unless I wanted to find myself freaking right the eff out, bolting out of the house, and finding myself in Alaska or even Siberia before I slowed down, I'd better make a plan.

So, escape plan in place, things have calmed a bit, but I still feel pretty jumpy. Rosie and I spent a quiet evening playing card games. One round of SET and two rounds of another game, Lie Detector. She can play through a round of SET now, but it still gets on her nerves a bit. Lie Detector is actually far more complex in its way, but she has a special interest in detection and mysteries, so... there you are. Rosie commented (for maybe the hundredth time) that she thought she might like to go into law enforcement when she grows up.

I could see her doing that. Detective work! Anything that requires analysis, really. I remember Easter several years ago, when she gathered evidence quietly for a week or two, then presented it to us in a verbal bullet-point style to prove definitively that her dad and I had to be the Easter Bunny. She detailed each item with chopping motions of her hands.

1. She saw a box of Peeps through the doubled plastic of a bag I brought home a day or two before Easter. The Peeps didn't show up later, but there were Peeps in her basket.
2. Her dad and I were acting funny.
3. The Easter Bunny left a toy for her cousin, but it was in a package, which meant it had been purchased.
4. The Bunny left a green pawprint on a napkin, but she spied a white spot in the pawprint she thought should not be there.

Put that all together, and it pointed to: my parents are possessed by the spirit of the Easter Bunny.

We've worked on logical conclusions since then, of course.