Hot Dogs and Violence!

Now that the Holiday season is over my Friday routine is forced to return to normal.  For the past 6 weeks, Friday night meant returning from work, pouring a Strong Beer  and watching the Lionel Polar Express Train under our tree.   The beer has a bit  of alcohol so one sip means I am in for the night and one beer does the trick (since I am a light weight).  It pours like motor oil, is chock full of calories and  taste and at 10.5% alcohol I would say it is the beer equivalent of my wife’s coffee.  After the beer we’d throw in a Christmas movie, eat popcorn and candy and feel particularly festive.  Then the movie ends and our boys start using the cleared out area of the Great Room Floor (where they just laid out to watch the movie) as their wrestling area – it’s as if sitting still for an 1 1/2 hour movie is too much and dictates this exercise.  Patty’s threshold for this, correctly,  is much lower than mine.  I know the activity is necessary and I  am initially slightly amused.  But, predictably, it degenerates into the  inmates running the asylum. Apparently, roughhousing and listening to Mom or Dad are mutually exclusive activities.   I usually ended up standing up and saying something like “Knock it off, or next Christmas Movie just Mom and I will watch!!” – obviously an empty threat – I think they know this, but it does bring calm.