"Khristmas" with the Kids

What I have learned in the past four days:

Little kids need constant entertainment. A fifteen minute car ride with three kids equaled at least ten rounds of hangman. Imagine what four days with six single-digit aged kids were like.

And they all wondered why I needed to sleep until noon every day!

(That "sleep" in my cute little cousin's Hello Kitty bed, under her Hello Kitty sheets and her Hello Kitty comforter was not, by any means, undisturbed - an entire army of stuffed animals were pelted at me over the four day period by the little kids who played every sport under the sun and had amazingly strong little arms and impeccable aim.)

They also have boundless energy. Sitting still, even for five minutes, was a no-can- do for these kids. The words, "I'm bored!" accompanied by an eager "ENTERTAIN ME NOW!!" look on their faces translated to hours-long games of hide-and-seek in my aunt's new three story mansion, elaborate tea parties with topping-less pizza and pieces of princess wedding cake, and the baking of hundreds (seriously, hundreds) of cookies, and lots and lots and lots of origami.

Speaking of cookies...

Kids LOVE cookies. I have never seen a sheet of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies disappear so quickly before. Once I pulled a sheet out of the oven, placed it on top of the metal Winnie the Pooh cooling rack on the counter and turned my back to put another sheet of cookies into the oven, at least half of the cookies disappeared. Within ten minutes, the sheet was empty again.

Baking with kids meant lots of spilled flour and sugar, broken eggs, and attempts to stop one kid from eating all the raw cookie dough ("... but it's so yum-my!" she pleaded) and the other from eating all the chocolate chips out of the bag; in other words, PURE MADNESS.

"Pure madness" summed up my four days in New Jersey pretty accurately.


But I loved every single minute of it.

(Trying to get everyone together for one picture on Christmas day was like graduation all over again; which camera do we look into?? Hopefully one of the other cameras got a good shot.)

Now that I am back in the hustle and bustle of New York City and away from the zoo of my relatives' suburban households, I actually kind of miss being surrounded by kids twenty-four seven.

No worries though, I will be heading back into the fray (our next adventure will take place on the snowy slopes!) on Thursday evening.