Family get together

Last night we had an early Christmas celebration with my mother-in-law and both brother-in-laws and their families. One of the B-i-Ls is going out of town for the holidays so this was going to be our last chance to see them before Christmas.

As soon as they got here, Rock Band was in full effect. It is such a great party game. The funny part was that before anybody had tried it, they all kept saying that they weren’t going to sing. But, as soon as one person did it, everybody else wanted their turn at it. Who cares how bad you sing? Just get up there and belt it out. Have fun. And that’s what we did.

I was pretty stoked because after everybody tried the drums, most people decided to stick to guitar or vocals. That meant I got to stay and play drums on almost every song. Damn, Metallica’s Enter Sandman drives me nuts. There is one section on it that just confounds me. Even on the easy level. Though, I did move up and play on Medium for a bunch of the songs.

Only the B-i-L that is going out of town and his wife opened gifts. Mainly because we forced them to. They are basically newlyweds, so we thought it would be a lot of fun to give them a book I found called “Position of the Day“. It has diagrams for all sorts of interesting sexual positions to try during the year. One is called the “YouTube” and the picture shows both people holding video cameras. If they try that one out, I would rather not receive a link to the results. I shot video of them opening the gift. You can see it here.

Good times.

How to talk to your kids about pregnancy

Recently on CNN.com I read this article about Jamie Lynn Spears (little sister to Britney Spears) announcing that she’s pregnant. While I could care less about her being pregnant, but they were talking about how parents are going to explain to their children who may watch Jamie’s show Zoey 101 on Nickelodeon. Since I have two teenagers at home, this is definitely a topic I wanted to follow up on.

I consider myself very lucky that I have two fantastic children who are respectful of others, don’t get in to trouble at school and have zero interest in drinking or drugs. Seriously, with that stuff out of the way, anything else that comes up with the kids is pretty small potatoes. Sure, I can’t get my son to clean his room to save my life. But if it’s a choice between a clean room and having to worry that they are out doing drugs or shoplifting, I’ll take the messy room.

Last night while we were out shopping, I brought up this subject with my wife. I explained everything I had read on CNN.com and how some of the parents who had responded to the article had said that they would use this news as a way to talk to their kids about making smart choices and waiting until they are older to experiment with having sex.

This morning, after my wife dropped off the kids at school, she came in to the room while I was getting ready for work and tells me that she spoke with the kids this morning on the way to school. I asked how it went. She says the following:

I asked them if they knew who Jaime Lynn Spears was. Our son said, “Yeah, she’s pregnant.” I said that I know I have good kids who make smart choices and I am very proud of them. I realize that you are teenagers and that you may be starting to have questions about sex. So, if you do have any questions, ask your Father.

She sold me up the river. Damn her!

OK, actually, she told me that they all three got a big laugh out of it.

Not only am I lucky to have two great kids, I have an amazing wife who knows how to talk to our kids about sensitive topics without turning them in to embarrassing situations. Be setting a light-hearted tone she opens the door for the kids to ask questions in a non-threatening environment.