When I have my daughter for Thanksgiving, we try to invite as many of her available friends as possible to come and do crafts on Black Friday. The idea is to give parents time-out to shop, have fun for the kids, give me an excuse to stay in the house, avoid the crowds, and still appear to be a "normal" parent. When we don't have her for Thanksgiving, we do a smaller group at some other random time closer to Christmas.
This year we had 17 kids (16 girls, and one very brave little boy). We made marble christmas balls, Terra Cotta Bell ornaments - and the crowning glory: Marshmallow Snowman on a stick. OOEY, Gooey, Hilarious, sugar coated heaven. We had glue, paint and chaos everywhere. The first child arrived at 7:30am, the last one left at 6:30pm. We drank hot-chocolate, roasted marshmallows, ate pizza and LOTS of sugar. We only had 3 minor accidents, 2 on the same child, and only a small amount of blood - that sounds pretty darn successful to me!
I sent them all home tired, sugared up and completely out of control. I'm not sure if any of them will be allowed to come back. My husband told me that when all of these girls hit 14, he plans to take up fishing, 'cause they already make him crazy. WHAT!?! I need back-up. I only hold it together, because I know that when half of them are swinging from the trees out back, he'll step in and get at least some of their appendages back on the ground.
The good new is that they are all old enough to be really helpful. They help me set up, do the crafts, and help me clean up. Very little after mess. When they were all 6, it was a lot more work, and not nearly as much fun (for me).
Hey - and the best part? and I treasure these because I know they will disappear in a few years - The daughter told me that I am a FUN MOM, and she is really glad to have me - all wrapped up in an unsolicited "thank you." Wow - thoughtful appreciation from a pre-teen - this is a parenting Gold Star.
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