This evening my wife and I have 4 of our 5 grandchildren spending the night. The youngest is just a hair too young to join the party and so he is sleeping in his own bed across the valley. The children are asleep now and I am free to share some of the wisdom I have gained from the experience.
The first order of business this evening included feeding the children. Anyone with kids between the ages of 3 and 7 know they are the meanest of food critics. Furthermore it is difficult to find a common meal they can all agree upon. Fortunately I had the foresight to know we had two choices: macaroni and cheese or pizza. We decided on a family-size pizza that is half cheese and half pepperoni. The kids loved it. For dessert we made a run to the nearby doughnut shop and picked out a dozen colored with different Holiday sprinkles. Kids loved them.
Next the kids had to decide between a number of different evening activities. Ultimately it boiled down to decorating gingerbread houses or watching a movie. The downside of gluing candy to fake buildings with nasty frosting is the candy. Children like to eat more of it than they place on the tiny structures making it nearly impossible to fall asleep at the end of the evening. I breathed a sigh of relief when they unanimously agreed upon the movie. Now the only decision laid in which movie to watch. My oldest grandson has seen "Home Alone 2" no less than 4 times this Holiday season and his dad is getting tired of watching it. He suggested this movie to his sister and cousins who immediately rejected the idea. He came to me almost in tears and I explained that he needed to do a better job of selling the movie and not trying to force his choice on anyone. It only took 30 seconds for the kids come to agreement and support my grandson's choice. He probably has a role in sales in his future.
We all sat down in front of the television and started the movie complete with popcorn and water bottles. My grandson loves the movie not for the talent of the actors but for the 20 minutes of the criminals getting the snot kicked out them by the young protagonist. My other grandchildren loved the slapstick comedy as well. Unfortunately this left everyone a little slap-happy and not wanting to go to sleep. There is also the effects that blue light has and keeping people awake when you really want them to go to sleep. I solved that with 30 minutes of light acoustic guitar practice to help calm everyone down. For the most part, it worked.
Should you find yourself trying to get cousins to try and sleep at the end of a fun day, remember to feed, entertain, and use music. Now I hope they stay asleep for the remainder of the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment