Henry Family!: "I missed the entire 80's decade of football."

My dad came to visit this weekend to take Abby to Beauty and the Beast. They had a great time. She got a ring with a lot of glitter for her face in it (thanks- the cat is still full of glitter) and they stuffed themselves with popcorn. She's still excited about that. It was a great day for them both. The greatest quote of the day however, was my Dad. He and Ray were talking about watching football with kids. He said, "I missed the entire 80's decade of football." I laughed (yes, I grew up in the 80s), since I realized that Ray is missing a lot of football now.
In order to accommodate this loss, we are working on a new Raven's plan for next season. However, here we are at playoffs. And the Ravens are winning- woot woot. Poor Ray. Once we had Abby, things kind of changed during football. He started off only watching games when she went to bed. But, she never slept. And then with Brooks, he had to give up college football. And now, it's just harder to watch each game. So, for this week, I figured that he would stand a greater chance of watching the entire game if people came over who : a. also wanted to watch b. had kids so they could play together and ~~leave everyone alone~~ have a fun time and c. it was a party atmosphere and thus Abby wouldn't be as likely to ~~take over the television~~ need entertainment from us.    This worked fairly well. We had some awesome food from Puff Pastry. We had been researching the idea this week after a friend at work (who was a professional chef) told me to stop doing tiny hotdogs and get on the puff pastry train. Together we worked on Polish Purses and a Hamburger Wrap (mini ones). (And Helen watched them in the oven so they didn't burn.) They were great- team effort. Combined with Alyssa's sausage queso (hot in the crockpot) and the millions of other things to eat it was yummy. I think. No one complained, so that's a good sign. Plus, there was beer and wine. So, whatever.

Brooks napped into the end of the first quarter which made it easy to get the food out and Ray got to watch the first part of the game. Abby and the other kiddos played great. When Brooks got up, we ~~made them go upstairs to play~~ offered to put on a movie and let them watch in our bedroom. Between that and the Ipod, they were set for awhile. It wasn't until fourth quarter that it was pretty much like Wack a Mole in the living room. Every five seconds a kid would wander in front of the television. Someone would grab them and then another one would wander through. Times six kids. I'm exhausted. Finally, when it was clear we were going to win, I got out a pile of sautee pans and spoons. I was all set to send them out to bang pans. Get out. Make noise. Fresh air. Hooray. But Brady whacked Alyssa on the head with a pan. Hard. But don't worry, she shook it off (or so I think- Alyssa, are you out there, okay?).

Overall, the game was (mostly) watched. The kids played. Only seventeen meltdowns. No broken toys. Food was eaten. The Ravens are in the AFC Championship Game. Ray is not missing a decade of football. And all is right with the world.

Sorry, Dad. Maybe you could get a DVD collection of 80s football highlights?