Will you leave already?

Last night, Joe was out of town, I had my Christmas Bunco party, and Timothy had the evening all to himself. This doesn't happen often so he had PLANS which involved his Xbox and the entire contents of the pantry.

All afternoon he prepped. He did his homework, he studied, and he took out the trash. He even emptied the dishwasher--with a smile! After all, what's a few chores when you have the entire evening (with no mom or dad!) to look forward to?

In the meantime, I got ready. In addition to wrapping one gift for our Bunco gift exchange, I also prepared small individual gifts for everyone. This year I decided to give everyone a miniature Panettone and a Pocket Angel purchased from my sister's Etsy shop, Alleluia Rocks.

There was a lot of last minute running around: upstairs to take a shower, downstairs to wrap, upstairs to curl my hair, downstairs to pack up everything, upstairs for my shoes, coat, and purse. Then, upstairs again because I forgot my earrings. In the middle of all this hustle and bustle Timothy was patiently waiting for me to JUST LEAVE ALREADY. In fact, this is me smiling because he had just asked, "What time did you say you had to leave? Aren't you going to be late?"

What a nice, thoughtful young man.

Eventually I (finally!) left for Bunco and Timothy (finally!) had the house to himself

And while Timothy was doing Xbox-y things, I had a blast at our Christmas Bunco party! This year we decided to meet for dinner, and it was an intimate, cozy way to celebrate. We ate, laughed, talked, and exchanged gifts. One of the gifts someone gave was MY BOOK! It was surreal to see someone open a gift and then pull out a copy of An Ocean, an Airplane, and Two Countries Full of Kisses. Then I was asked to sign it so, technically, Christmas Bunco was my first book signing! (Which is appropriate because as a group we celebrate many milestones.)

I think we were the last group to leave the restaurant, and while everyone was gathering gifts and donning coats I sent Timothy a quick text letting him know I would be home in 20 minutes. He responded immediately.

"Take your time," he texted. "I'm good."

What a nice, thoughtful young man (said with a smidgen of mom sarcasm).

THIS guy. Gotta love him.