I had all of these great plans for what we could do today with all of this time to relax. So what did we do? Well, I slept late, which was good. Then I took Frances to her gymnastics party, where the vexing question of whether I should just cough up the rest of that $250 that I didn't fundraise (like many others didn't, it seems...) loomed very large. It all has me wondering whether we should be moving toward sending her back to her previous gym, which was further away.

And just as when you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk to go with it, when you ask about going back to Olympiad, you're probably going to start thinking that you need to move. So after the party, we all piled into the car for our family's favorite activity: looking at houses. Year after year, every year since we've lived here, we've been looking for somewhere else to go. We've never quite made it out of our house, but if we thought it was at all possible to sell our house, we'd probably have been gone long ago. Now there's the whole economic bust thing going, two houses already for sale in our little neighborhood and another one going on in about two weeks. We have no possibility of competing with the state of our house and the craziness of our schedule and family! Nor do we really have any business buying something new, given that we're as prone to the economic disasters that are happening all around us as anyone else is. So I'm hoping that this time the urge to move on will pass as quickly as it came.

We've decided that perhaps Salisbury is our desired location. The areas we looked at today included Queensmill (perhaps too locked in and not quite on main roads; slightly more difficult for getting to work); some areas in Bon Air (most houses too small); other areas off Robious (absolutely no houses for sale at all--a good sign, but not when you want to buy something). I don't want to be house poor, especially if one of the primary reasons we would be moving would be to be closer to children's activities. With as much attending open houses as we've done and as much driving around as we've done in the past, the activity now ceases to thrill me with the possibilities and just makes me feel very, very tense.

I picked up a few more very small things for Kerry (no surround-sound speaker systems!) and a few other little gifts after everyone else was dropped at home. I bought crickets for the frog. But then we did a decent job of just enjoying a day with no obligations. Frances is sleeping over at a friend's house. The boys and I played Monopoly and Ollie won the first game. He is not very much fun to play with because he cheats so often and so subtly that it is hard to trust anything he does or any situation on the board where something good happens to him. But I strongly believe that one key to improving his character and making him into a future friend-worthy person is to teach him through games how his behavior affects people and how to lose gracefully and still enjoy the time with others. Kerry played in the second Monopoly game, and I kept the bank far from Ollie and we had two adults scrutinizing his moves and rolls. He came extremely close to winning. Kerry went out earlier, but Ollie and I battled on with lots of hotels and large amounts of money going back and forth and back and forth for probably 45 minutes longer. I am proud to say that I finally have won a game! And I won it fairly and squarely!

We are hosting our now annual Waywards, Waifs, and Wastrels holiday dinner. I'm not sure how many are coming, and I blush to say that I hope that it is a manageable number because we have not yet begun to prepare. As of now, we have two families from across the street coming, each with two children. They came over last year, and it was tons of fun. I'm just really excited that we are going to be able to spend some time with other people so that Christmas day feels special. I miss the holidays we had when I was little, when my grandparents were staying with us and there was just a warm, enclosed feeling about our house. My kids haven't had that same extended family holiday experience, so finding other people who are also without extended families during Christmas has been a great way to get some of that warm, fuzzy holiday spirit back.

I think we're going to try to go to Norfolk tomorrow. I should be happy and energized about it, but right now, I just want to sit down and hole up at home! I want to finish cleaning up the boxes that are lying around after decorating the house. I want to do some last-minute shopping for some friends. I want to watch Christmas movies and play board games. I want to go out and look at other people's Christmas lights. I want to wrap presents. Maybe we would be better to wait until after Christmas for this. I guess we'll see where the day takes us tomorrow.