A Babysitter!

Everyone,

We were brave. Tonight was our ward's annual adult only white elephant exchange party. We love going. Every year we have such a great time and laugh so hard. This year there was some question as to if we were going to go. We both wanted to, but were we ready to leave the boys with a babysitter that wasn't family? (The last time we had a babysitter was in Utah, almost 6 months ago.)

We, okay I, decided that I was ready and called our normal babysitter to see if she could come. No! The 14-15 year old girls in our church were all having a sleep over together. So that meant that all of my regular babysitters were busy.

An older girl's mom said her daughter wasn't doing anything and so I asked her to babysit. Worked out great. She's really close to me and 16 too. And she has twin younger brothers. So I feel very comfortable leaving them with her.

And I'm glad we did! As we were leaving, Juice said that it was a good thing that Butterfly was staying home because she was driving him crazy today. Me too! We had a good laugh at that one. Poor Butterfly, it's been rough on her lately. RSV in the house, no one to play with, and a lot of pent up energy. She needed a fresh face to play with and we needed a night without her bedtime games.

The party was a blast. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time. We all get together in a circle, a huge pile of presents in the middle, and everyone has a number. When it's your turn, you get to either pick a present or steal a present from someone else. Once the present has touched three people, it's locked and that person it it's final owner.

I've gotten some interesting things in the past. Like last year when I was pregnant with the boys, I got a fat burning work out dvd. Juice got a manicure set the year before. We always bring some pretty fun stuff too. Like a bunch of really stinky soaps (sorry Lolli who got them). This year we brought some stickers I won't be using and cup Juice got at a conference he went to this year. Juice got to pick his present first and picked out a wooden bird house painted as a barn with toy animals stuck to it. It was not functional, but kind of cute.

The missionaries came to the party, and Juice and I were wondering to ourselves what in a missionary apartment could you bring to a white elephant gift party. I found out. It was....

a box of cheez-its with only crumbs inside.

What a lame gift! Worst gift ever, and bordering on not funny. It was the missionaries so I forgave them that. Plus, as the night went on and we saw some of the funny things people brought (VHS tapes, a signed picture of themselves [really really funny!] and random bits of makeup) I was actually kind of happy with my cheez-its box because I would not be bringing home useless junk.

Someone stole it to get a laugh. So I got to pick another one. I picked out a hanging holiday sign with a saying on it about friends and holidays. Something sappy. The missionaries took back their cheez-its box and the person who stole them got to steal something else.

We had the best time laughing and being with our ward and our friends. It ended way too early though so we decided to go to Toys-R-Us and see if we could buy Rock Band 2. They closed at 9pm so we drove around for a few minutes and went home.

All was quiet on the home front. The boys didn't even peep and Butterfly went down without a fuss and was asleep when we got there. Awesome! I checked the messages and Lolli had called to see if we wanted to get together and play the Wii tonight. Yes!

So as I took the babysitter home, Lolli and CandyMan came over and we played carnival games and Mario Kart. Fun fun fun!

It was a great night and a good recharge for me. Now if only I could guarantee myself several hours of sleep, that would just be the cherry on top.

Safire