Jake's Christmas Party...

Jake had his second annual Christmas Party today. It went from two until six. And the last two kids left at around 10:30. It sounded like they had a blast. They took over the downstairs. And they were loud. And every once in a while, I'd hear something I didn't like hearing - pool balls hitting the floor, a dart hitting the wall, and the occasional s-word.

This bothered me a little. I decided to get outside for a while, and I was working on the golf cart upgrades (pictures in a post to follow - it looks flippin' sweet!). Two teenage boys came to my neighbor's house to pick up our neighbor's daughter. The girl is either in Jake's grade, or maybe a year older. And these kids were all such jerks. Calling each other "bitch" and throwing rocks and they were just all around dirty little punks. And I can't believe my neighbor would let her daughter get in a car with these kids.

And it made me realize that Rachel and I, and the parents of all of the kids who were here are either very lucky or doing something right. It's probably a little of both.

Anyway, we gave the kids the run of the downstairs, a cooler full of sodas and bottled water, some chips and dip, 5 large pizzas, a big bowl of carrots, 3 televisions, a PS2, and 2 X Boxes that Jake's friends brought. I handed them the cheap camera and asked them to take lots of pictures and this is some of what went on...

















That kid in the cast is Blaine. You might remember him from an earlier post where I played golf with him, Jake, and Eric. Poor kid is a few days in to five weeks in a cast. And golf season is just around the corner. He was the monster golfer. Blaine's Mom told us a cool thing that Jake did. She said that if her kid did something like this, she'd want to know about it, so she wanted to tell us. Blaine broke his arm in P.E. playing basketball. He fell on it wrong and was down and in a lot of pain. And some boys were teasing him, "Why don't you go ahead and cry little girl." And stuff like that. And Jake stood up to them, told them to shut up because Blaine was really hurt. And, as it turned out, it was broken. I am proud of Jake for doing that, and really glad that a.) Blaine told his Mom about it, and b.) She told us about it.

I am also glad that Jake is wrestling because I think it is helping him learn courage and building his confidence.

And one girl came, Cheyenne. I thought that was pretty cool. A couple of others were supposed to come but had to cancel. She was one of the guys. I Also, I see Mario with the service access panel removed from the pool table. Which means somebody was screwing around and got a ball to jump the return track.

Also, and this was my tough parenting moment of the day - I came downstairs to find they were watching Superbad. Now, I remember seeing Animal House at that age. But this was too much. We wouldn't let Jake see it. But Pete did. So whatever, Jake's seen it. And most of the other kids had seen it and all. But it just sat wrong with us. And Rachel delegated the task of shutting it off to me. And it sucked.

But I went down there with a phone and politely asked Jake to pause the movie. I then said, "OK, you have two choices. You can put in Hot Rod instead, or you can each call your parents for me so I can ask them if it is OK for you to watch this movie." And they all leapt for the phone, again, most had seen it. And one said he watched it with his parents. And I wussed out and et it ride. And I went back upstairs. And I got the look from Rachel. She saves that look for the rare time when it really matters. And today it did.

And I went outside again to clear my head and think about it. On the one hand, I really like that Jake's friends want to come here. We've invested a lot in making our place the place kids want to hang out. That way we know where he is, who he's hanging out with, and what he's up to. So I was worried that not allowing them to see something they've already seen would make them less inclined to come here. And I was worried about embarrassing Jake. And I didn't want to be a flip-flop-flipper.

And then I thought a little more about our neighbor's kid. She was caught stealing alcohol from Hardester's and passed out in a creek last year - transported to the hospital everything. And the whole premise of the movie is that these dorky kids go on a mission to acquire alcohol so that they can get girls drunk and have sex. And I did the right thing. I went back downstairs and made them turn it off. I said, "I'm sorry, I love you kids, and this whole movie is about things I hope you don't ever do. It's not that it's 'R' rated, it's the subject matter I don't agree with. We have 200 other movies, so please pick something else."

The next time Rachel checked on them, they had put in the Simpson's Movie and were all singing "Spiderpig, Spiderpig, does whatever a Spiderpig does..."

Kids need boundaries.

And as far as we can tell, everyone had fun, nobody got hurt, nothing got broken, there was no drama, and 10 out of 11 kids said thank you. And the one that didn't say thank you didn't say anything at all, really. Nice boy, quiet type.

So that was our day. Rachel wrapped a lot of presents, but I don't think she's anywhere near halfway done. And she had a little accident with the hot glue gun while wrapping. Second degree burn on her finger.

I know, right? Glue gun? To wrap presents? Yes, I married a woman with a big Martha Stewart streak. Only kinder and without the felony insider trading.

If she let's me take a picture, I'll post it tomorrow. So now she is wrapping handicapped. Which means I'm going to have to wrap all of her presents and then some tomorrow. Good thing work gave me a half day.

Did I say Merry Christmas yet this year? I'll say it Christmas Day. Until then, tidings of comfort and joy, and safe travel to you and your families.