November 24

When I was growing up, school was out on just Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving week, but they do things a little differently here: here, our kids are off the entire week. After a morning of collectively lying around and doing a whole lotta nothing, we took a trip to Target this afternoon.

They had fun looking at Skylander figures (the Little Boys) and Disney Infinity figures (Abby), and then raiding the Christmas aisles, where they tried on a series of funky holiday headbands. (There are indeed photos, yes.) Eventually, we found ourselves in the refrigerated section, where a fight over GoGurt flavors very nearly broke out until Abby called her brothers over for a summit.

The goal of the meeting may have been something incredibly trivial --Brady wanted blueberry and cherry, while Abby and Isaac lobbied for cotton candy and strawberry-- but seeing them try to work together to come to a collectively agreeable solution was priceless. It gave me a little bit of hope knowing that they're willing to at least make a go at the art of compromise, because so much of life is about give and take.

(And for anyone wondering... the meeting wasn't so successful, but it didn't matter. Once Brady got a taste of the coveted cotton candy yogurt, he was satisfied with the outcome, even though it wasn't what he'd wanted.)