I'm Tellin' All Y'all

The quick version:
1) letting the cousins play together is fun
2) three and a half hours of sleep is not enough
3) family get-togethers always seem to involve some drama
4) singing "Sabotage" on Rock Band is lots of fun

The long version:
What a weekend! We had Dina's sister and brother and their families to our house for a Christmas in January. Friday was all about getting the house cleaned and ready. On Saturday morning, Dina's sister Gretchen and her husband and two boys came over. Their contribution to the weekend was an ENORMOUS EIGHTEEN POUND HAM. We'd managed to borrow a big roaster from a friend, so thankfully we didn't have to heat up the whole house to cook that thing. A little while later, Dina's brother Guy and his wife showed up. They brought a bunch of food, so we got all the food put away and started playing video games and hanging out. The games of the weekend were Mario Kart Wii and Rock Band. Good times! That afternoon almost everyone headed out of the house to see Guy's daughter sing in a choir performance. I stayed at home with Rohan (who was napping) and Griffin (who was sorely in need of a nap). I put Griffin down for his nap, and found myself with a very quiet house. My brain made a noise that in text looks much like this: AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH. That's mostly a huge exhaling relaxing sigh, but it's also a bit of a scream from fear of the unfamiliar. Anyway, with my chunk of free time I watched this week's Battlestar Galactica on my Macbook Pro in glorious Standard Def. (I tried a 720p version, but neither Quicktime nor VLC would play it.) Great episode - not as good as last week's, but still pretty good. Later everyone came home, we ate lots of ham, and played lots of video games (mostly the kids), and the kids opened up their presents. Toys, toys, toys, toys! It always amazes me how generous everyone is. That night, everyone stayed at our place except Gretchen and her husband, who went back to their place (their boys stayed at our place, though). It was a pretty late night...I think I turned in at about 2:30.

At 6:00 Rohan woke up and would not go back to sleep. Ugh. So I was up with him for a while before anyone else got up. I did manage to doze a little, but it was a rough morning. When everyone else was up we had our breakfast, which was make-your-own belgian waffles, and made-to-order omelettes by Guy's wife. Yum! Dina was making coffee drinks, too, which was delicious.

There was some drama when Gretchen and her husband didn't come back when we thought they would. (It wouldn't be a family get-together without drama.) We called them to see what was up and to basically say, "hey, you need to come watch your kids," and Gretchen's husband got VERY offended, to the point where he called and swore at my wife. Not cool. So he stayed home, Gretchen came over, and we got over it by playing Rock Band with the volume cranked and drinking homebrew (my Power Pack Porter turned out very good). I sang "Sabotage" (by the Beastie Boys, of course) which was a ton of fun and good stress relief. Dina played the drums a lot; I think she needed to hit things. I don't blame her! Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and the rest of the day was spent hanging out, watching some DVDs, playing more video games, and playing with the kids. It was exhausting, but fun overall.