Shabbat shalom.

I woke up before 7 to the sound of R's brand new, shiny, pink flip-flops clunking down the stairs. I could hear them on the second floor stairs and then coming down my basement stairs. She ran over to my bed to tell me that it was morning time.

I groaned and she went away.

But as she left she told me she was going to turn on all the lights for everyone to know it was morning. That barely registered with me and I went back to sleep.

When I did get up and go up to the kitchen I saw that she had, in fact, turned on EVERY light on the second floor.

We had a slow start to our day. Everyone was home today with no pressing plans, except E, who went into work an hour later than usual. We all ate breakfast and napped and watched TV until nearly 11.

T took J out for a special day with him while R and I made some granola during the baby's nap. We played indoor baseball, and she insisted on catching with her bare hand and throwing with her pink glove.

For dinner, we were all invited to T's Mom's house, who is a wonderfully sweet woman. I met her for all of ten seconds the other day but she gave me no trouble. She called today to make sure we were ALL coming and told me she was looking forward to it.

So after T got home we bathed all the stinky, sweaty kids and headed out.

The house we pulled up to was deceivingly small on the outside. It sat back far from the road, the yard landscaped, but very casually. It was wood toned and looked like a little Pennsylvania home.

We went up through the garage...up and up and up...three flights of stairs later we were in the kitchen. Down a hallway was the largest living room in the world, all formally decorated with those really uptight looking couches arranged in little stiff seating areas all around the room. Every corner had a giant vase or tree or a dramatically ornate decorative piece.

Talk about sensory overload.

There was a conference -- I mean, dining table on one side and in the middle of two seating areas was a piano. Down another hall was a small cozy den where the family actually lived. In the kitchen was a breakfast nook and a TV. That floor also contained the master bedroom and two bathrooms.

I have no idea what was on the other two floors of the house.

Mom T had appetizers waiting, which made her already one of my favorite people. What is the world without appetizers? A huge rainstorm was hindering E, who was stuck in the city while the trains ceased running. But Mom T kept us all fed and kept the kids entertained.

For two hours.

At one point she had taken the two older kids into her big bedroom where the toys were and they were playing house. I was shadowing Baby I and he led me in there. She showed me the toys he could play with and then grabbed a baggy off the vanity and handed it to me, telling me it was for me.

Inside was the fanciest pair of earrings I have ever touched.

Around 8, E finally made it and dinner could actually begin. They served part of the dinner as another round of appetizers and then salad. Then as we sat down they casually did their singing and praying and candle lighting and Torah reading, and surprisingly it wasn't awkward at all. The kids, of course, didn't gather around the table when told and T's mom was still running around bringing food. T was clearing off the table and T's dad was getting chairs. So my standing back and not participating was totally discreet.

We ate and I coerced J into eating. R threw a tantrum over a cup, but I think mainly the tantrum came from eating dinner at bedtime. Baby I had eaten his fill during the appetizers, so he just screamed while we all ate.

After dinner, the kids' grandpa snuck them each four oreos and T's mom ran off with the baby to try to get him to sleep. I helped T clean up the kitchen and pack up the leftovers.

In the car on the way home I suggested to the kids that we play "Who can be the quietest?" Baby I was asleep, so either he won or he wasn't playing. But I lost quickly when J started whispering my name and I couldn't help but answer. When I did, he said, "I want to be quiet" and lost the game. R pretended to be asleep for the rest of the ride. She tied with T.