And the Holidays Just Keep on Comin'

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas holiday! In case you don't follow me on twitter, let me tell you about a "fail" I pulled on the Santa present. We got The Offspring an acoustic/electric guitar set with everything she needed to rock the house. For a week, we've had it hidden in the closet of our bonus room (that infamous 8x28 closet). Now that the bonus room is our studio, we use it as a place to chill and relax...

On Christmas Eve, my baby girl didn't feel too well. She was laying on the couch with me and woke up around 1AM. Since our living room is tile, sound tends to carry to every room on the bottom floor. She wanted to talk, so I suggested we go up to the studio so as not to wake her father in the master bedroom.

Not a good idea. Because unbeknownst to me, the father had moved the humungous box with the guitar and amp inside into the MIDDLE OF THE BONUS ROOM/STUDIO so that he could attach a big bow to it. She and I trudge upstairs, open the door, and after I'm a few feet into the room, WHAM.

"Get out of here!!" I holler.
"Okay," she says, running back down the stairs.
"Did you see it?" I query.
"Uh...no..." she replies, totally unconvincingly.
Then the father appears at the bottom of the stairs. Not exactly happy. Technically, it WAS Christmas morning. And yeah, she did have to wait until we got up to actually play the thing.

I think she enjoyed it:We went to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra for her birthday the next day - and let me tell you, it was incredible. If you get a chance to see them, GO.

Our next adventure? New Year's Eve. We usually have an adult party, with 20 or so revelers. This year, the kid wanted to invite more than just a few friends. She passed out fliers at school before the break. Fifty fliers.

This ordinarily wouldn't worry me - after all, you usually can expect half of the invitees to show. However, a few weeks ago, she asked me (with a sweet innocent face, let me add) if she could have FOUR or FIVE friends over. Got that? A few text messages later, and kids start showing up to my house. From out of nowhere. When it was all said and done? This is how many ended up there:In case you're not good at counting, there are 23 kids in that photo. At one point, as one kid is hauling in the whole set of Rock Band to play in the living room, I asked her, "When exactly is this party over?" In return, I got a shrug.

A bottle rocket/roman candle war broke out in the yard shortly after the bonfire was lit. And when I left the house in the care of the male influences, I returned to find a kid being duct-taped to a tree:She DOES appear quite happy about it.

Hopefully, I will survive New Year's Eve. We are cleaning out the garage (not that we've had much time to get it messy) and hope to contain some of the teen melee in there.

Pray for me, will ya?

And here's wishing you all a happy and SAFE New Year!