Three's Company

There are some things about Thanksgiving that I could do without. I'm not a fan of Black Friday madness that has people out shopping at midnight. Many people LOVE leftover turkey. They can have mine. And having the kids out of school for an entire week...well all I can say is thank goodness for Winter Break camps that involve two hours of swimming per day.

The one thing about the Thansgiving holidays I couldn't do without is the moment my husband's eldest brother makes his appearance at the airport. As far as my kids are concerned, their Uncle Adam is better than meeting Taylor Swift followed by a three day trip to Disneyland.

They mob him as though he's literally Taylor Swift and for four or five days the number of children in my house goes from two to three. There are constant wrestling matches and I have to resign myself to inconvenient pieces of furniture like coffee tables or couches being shoved to one side.

One episode of The Munsters while I'm at the grocery store morphs into a Munster marathon complete with three sets of belly laughs echoing up from the basement (four, if my husband is home). Heads are pressed tightly together and I try to pretend lice is not epidemic in my children's school.

Halloween bags of candy are inspected and appreciated with much more gusto than I can ever muster. Schemes involving an autumn olympics tournament complete with events like riding bikes around a track and tennis volleying are dreamed up and then executed.
I find myself having to say things like, "I'm sure your uncle doesn't want the hamster on top of his head," or "Please don't bang on the door to your uncle's bathroom and ask him what he's doing in there."

Their uncle's faint British accent is dissected, imitated and then he is forced to read Harry Potter with all the accents and lots of interruptions for discussion. Bedtimes are, well, I take the attitude they can sleep when their uncle returns to New York.

I'm sure their teachers won't like my sleep-deprived children in their classes today, but I suppose we can always catch up on our sleep during the two and a half weeks we have off for Christmas Break.