Yet Again We Have Escaped the Public School System for Two Entire Weeks!

Ok, so we haven't totally shaken it - they sent my boy home with a homework packet.

Over break! Isn't there a law against that?

Still, conversations such as this will be way less frequent:

Me - "You need to stop working and go play!"

My boy - "Why?"

Me - "You've been doing homework since we got home! You're not going to have any time to play!"

My boy - "I've got two big projects due!!!"

Me - "When are they due?"

My boy - "Monday."

Me - "Okay. Well, you can work a LITTLE more. But then you've got to go play."

My boy's as playful as they come, by the way. It's just that fifth grade has been a LOT of homework.

And of course, no school for two weeks means no carpool for two weeks. That means no more fun games like, "How can a ______ kill you?"

In this delightful game my boy and his friend take turns naming an object. The other boy then offers some intricate scenario where that object causes an untimely death.

The game is played like this:

Friend - "How can a bottle cap kill you?"

My boy - "You open a bottle and put the bottle cap in your pocket. Later when you're at the gas station parking lot you reach into your pocket to get out money to buy a pack of gum. The bottle cap flies out of your pocket and hits the pavement. It causes a spark which lights the gas tanks on fire and you die from the explosion."

Me - "Couldn't you just choke on the bottle cap?"

Or something like that, because generally I don't take (too many) notes on their conversations. But the scenarios are very intricate and totally bypass some simple and more common ways to die. I'm sure all that exercise of their imagination is good for them. Somehow.

And since I never did put up any pictures from Thanksgiving:
It turns out that for the price of a few cockroaches, interminable traffic, no mountains, a hurricane or tropical storm every now and again, and what some people consider intolerable summers, you may also get to eat outside on Thanksgiving day. Sounds like a fair deal to me.

This is my favorite Thanksgiving photo:Why isn't my grandfather's wheelchair in the trunk? This was the subject of a couple of conversations, ending in one of my cousins calling my aunt's sanity into question. Let's just say that in my family we do things the hard way. Apparently. Or at least I do.

Happy first night of Hannukah!