A snowstorm in my house
We got a package. That is a very exciting occurrence around here. And it is one we were rather excited about, as I remember.

Yes, my husband gave us regular updates via UPS' tracking system as to how the package was progressing. At the moment, however, I can only remember about 1,000 of the items in the box.

As peanuts will, they attracted the immediate attention of four curious children. I heard my husband's strained voice as he tried to keep all the peanuts in the box despite the efforts of four children to somehow get into them.
Aw, come on dad...you know you want to...
I chided. I was just teasing, but added,
Just let them dump them...
I had to check to make sure it was really my husband when, after a pause, I heard in a somewhat hesitant voice,
OK, go ahead.
And a shout went up to the heavens as it began to snow in our front room.

My husband winced. He grimaced. He even began to twitch. But he also just sat there and watched without much comment as the children made a horrendous mess, spreading the peanuts around the room, grinding them into the floor mats and crunching them over each other's hair.

This is the man who really preferred that our oldest not get any toys out of any of their boxes when she was a baby. I think we bought them to store neatly on shelves, because he had a really hard time actually allowing her to empty the contents of any of them. It took three children before they could get out both the blocks and the animals at the same time.

So you can see he has come a long way, twitching and all.

And the effort was not lost on our four children as they dutifully helped clean up the mess afterward. I think they might be holding out hope for another package, but the look in my husband's eyes seem to indicate this was a once in a lifetime experience.

But who knows? Once in a lifetime is more than I ever would have bargained for.

Oh, yeah. The contents...that stuff used to protect all the peanuts with was our shipment from Australia. But shhhhh...there were some presents in there for my parents...