Twas The Night Before Christmas Eve...

And all through the house; not a creature was stirring, not even a .................penguin...
The penguins were warming themselves by the fire, and skating a fishing with nary a care.........
When out in the real world, there arose such a clatter.... One would think that those penguins should worry -- what is the matter?!

(sure. It was all his fault. We sent Micah out at the elementary school Christmas concert to purchase raffle tickets and distribute them into the various baskets/projects/mammoth gingerbread houses that they had collected in this ingenious fundraiser. The Hildebrands "won" the mansion. Can you call it winning when you've put down roughly a month's salary in tickets?!)Oh. But she was a beaut. We had to send Brian home for the van so we could get it home- the plywood base made for a pretty heavy Christmas decoration. But that was the least of my sorrows. The thing was huge!-- taking up over half the dining room table with its opulence of penguin-itis. Penguins in the hot tub. Penguins on the hill. Penguins ice-fishing. This simply had to stop. Time to take it outside, fellas.
Have a little family togetherness.

Sure. We'd heard of families who went carrolling on the eve of Christmas eve. We'd heard of game nights, egg nog in punch bowls, Christmas tree trimming, and last minute gift wrapping. There was some mention of Scrabble. The notion of playing old albums on our USB turntable. There was that pesky community ice rink right in our own backyard. There were twenty-three pieces of Lego from the boys Advent calendars, (okay. 46, if you want to get all technical and mathematical. sheesh.) There were pots of gold, butter toffees, and Lindor chocolates.

But nothing.No nothing could bring a family together like a good, old-fashioned Red Ryder 200-shot Carbine Action Air Rifle. (or a pellet gun as the case may be). Time to show those invasive, self-entitled, overbearing penguins who's boss.

Those penguins learned whose boss in these parts.

Their cozy ice shack pumped fulla lead.

Nope. these kids aren't growing up all traditional like.

We've never had a ping pong tournament in our basement.

Never done a decent road trip.

Don't agree on everything.

But when we all put our heads together- boy, oh boy. Can we create a memory.

(Let there be Peace on Earth. And let it begin with me. well, maybe you.)