Maybe We Just Need To Relax

Kid1 went on Winter Break yesterday (The Diner observes political correctness).

Kid2, more or less, did too. But her schooling is more at her own pace...but she gets a couple of weeks off from dance practice.

I'm on vacation...using up those last allotted days for 2007. I think I'm driving my smokin' hot shutterbug trophy wife crazy as I putter around. I think I'm pretty good at puttering. Her concern isn't that I'm around, really, but rather that I become Mr. Curious and ask a lot of questions and get involved in things that normally go on quite nicely with no input from me. She's playful about it all, but I think she wants me to start looking into hobbies a bit more seriously.

So, after school yesterday we met at the mall...which was surprisingly lightly trafficked for a few days left before the holidays. We decided to take in a movie together...which was nice. Nobody was really hungry so we became mallrats and did a little Christmas browsing. It was more laughs and goofing off than purchases. It was good family time.

At around 8:30PM, the girls wanted to go home...and Tracy and I decided on an impromptu date night. So, get this:

We gave Kid1 the car keys (we met at the mall from different early afternoon locales) and she drove them home. We stayed, grabbed a late, lite dinner and took in another movie. How cool is that? You just hand the oldest kid the car keys and they take it to the house?! Pretty much awesome.

Anyway, we arrive home and the Christmas lights outside were turned off. The girls rooms were dark. Lloyd looked like we'd awakened him with our arrival...but that's hard to guage: He always looks like that.

It was 10:45PM.

Two teenage girls fresh on Winter Break were in bed.

And O-U-T...

...out.

Maybe that's a sign that we push too hard when we aren't on Winter Break.