Christmas Dinner

The nice thing about pictures is that they capture a moment. And even if that moment is entirely non-representative of the moments that came before or after it, you have captured the moment, and you can present it to others any way you like. 

In this case, the camera has captured what appear to be two very well-behaved little boys. They seem to be waiting patiently for Christmas dinner to arrive. And if I were a big fat liar, that's the story I'd go with. In fact, I considered that option for more than a few minutes, but it turned out that I was too lazy to make up an appropriate lie to accompany the lovely photo (plus, there were a number of witnesses who would probably rat me out, leaving me to decide whether to pull a Blagojevich and just pretend that the evidence against me does not exist, or to apologize, beg for mercy, and resign from office, and that sounds like a lot of work as well--especially since I don't even hold an office), so I have chosen to go with the truth.

The truth is that Zeke loves Jacob and Jacob loves Zeke, but when the two get together they are squirrelly with a capital "S". If you look closely, you can see that the white-shirted toddler is about to lunge for the basket of rolls with his right hand--before he has eaten even a bite of meat or vegetables. Meanwhile, his blue-shirted friend is rotating toward the right, so he can roll onto his tummy, slide off his chair, and crawl around under the table. Impressed by this move, Mr. White Shirt will immediately replicate it. He will be captured and reinstalled in his seat, where he will again attempt to snag a roll while simultaneously protesting that he's not hungry enough for any turkey. Meanwhile, Mr. Blue Shirt has been extracted from his fortress beneath the table and announces his intention to skip dinner altogether and move straight to dessert. Mr. White Shirt seconds this motion. Dinner threatens to spin out of control. Fortunately, with the help of a wide variety of threats, cooler heads prevail, and the small dinner guests ultimately consumer their meals. 

And that is but one five-minute segment of our Christmas vacation. It was action packed to say the least. And dinner antics aside, Zeke had a wonderful time with Jacob. They are pallie-wallies of the highest order. Committed to squeezing as much running and jumping and squeaking into each and every one of their visits. No hitting, no biting, no fighting, no crying (except when the visit is over)--just lots of high energy fun. And that's a great thing. Can't wait 'til they get together again.