Monsters!

I saved the best of the holiday posts for last.

Last Saturday night, Finn and his folks came over to play with Uncle Jeams. Well, Finn did. The rest of us just sort of lounged around and drank the evening away while the guy who would eventually get to go home to a nice, quiet house for a good night's sleep entertained our brood. And entertain them he did.

The boys were playing with flashlights and the light in the dining room was turned off for their benefit. Then, quite out of the blue, Finn pointed his light into the dining room and shouted "Monster in there!" Jamie said he would check it out. He slowly walked around the table and announced, "I don't see any monsters in here . . ." and then promptly fell down to the ground as if the monster had gotten him.

The boys squealed and shrieked, possibly in terror, but quickly recovered as James got up and a new game was born. A new game that would fill nearly the next two hours. Solid. Below is a somewhat long video taken during the adventure.

After some time, we asked the boys what the monster's name was. They said that his named was Fred Ghost. We thought this was an appropriately amusing name. Then we asked what he looked like. He was blue, small, and slimy. That was all the detail we could get out of them, though, and that had to come between squeals and running into and out of the dining room.

Long after we grew tired of the game, and had run out of other options for ending it, each set of parents explained Fred's departure by insisting that he had left to live under the other child's bed. Apparently the kids weren't old enough to understand this concept, however, as neither of them had fearful nights in their rooms in the evenings that followed. This is a good thing. Fun though the game had been, all of its charm would have been instantly lost if our kids had suddenly been convinced that everywhere dark was inhabited by monsters. I expect this will eventually happen anyway, but hopefully not until the kids are old enough to understand the evidence we present to the contrary.

Anyway, enjoy the video.