Lincoln-Douglas

To make the long week a little shorter for the boys, and to assuage her conscience for putting them through the school-week grinder, Kim pulls Lucas and Jack out of school on noon on Fridays. She teaches at two o'clock so I take a late lunch and we hang out. This past Friday the weather was crummy so we came home for a bit.

At least I did. They wanted to play with the neighbors, so we went and knocked on the door. The girls were all too happy to have someone to boss around/play with and their mom was gracious to a fault. Not only did she take them in, but said I could go home and relax. She even let them stay while I went to get Kim. Finer neighbors you'd be hard pressed to find. So there I was with a free hour. Ooh what to do? An idle mind is the devil's workshop so I went straight to the computer. Oh never mind that. Actually I did. I read up on the Sounder's opponent for the weekend - Dallas FC. I also had a restorative as my man Wodehouse would say. A cup of tea.

Not wanting to be a complete deadbeat of a dad I did go and check on the boys. Jack had wondered home in search of a towel. He wanted to dry a toy car so he could sit on it. I went back with to see Lucas. I found him in the neighbor's back yard on the verge of tears. It doesn't take long to put him near tears so I wasn't too worried. I was concerned and soon protective. He said that Talia (the 5-year old) told him Christmas didn't exist. Well this could be earth-shattering. Thank goodness she didn't touch on Santa Claus else we might have gone to war. Of course my natural inclination would be to point out that she is five years old and doesn't know what the hell she's talking about, and being many times her size perhaps raise a hand to threaten a good cuffing. Gotta protect your family after all.

Instead I went with reason. Fool that I am. They are Jewish and naturally don't celebrate Christmas. I reminded Lucas of this and told Talia that I understand they don't recognize it as a holiday, but it does in fact exist. I went so far as to point out that is is printed on our calendar. Fool. I can't quote her, but she let me know it wasn't on theirs, so there! Please, I can out-reason a five-year old. Next I let her know that she wasn't on our calendar but still existed, reasoning that something could still BE even if not printed. Some defiant crossed arms along with much swaying and squinting from her, plus a couple nuh-uhs took the debate.