today's mission: act like a kid

I love holidays. Of course, you get all the good stuff on holidays, like food, candy, dessert, wine, more food, more wine. But what I really love is that holidays give you time to get together with a bunch of adults and act like a bunch of kids.

This Saturday, my clever mother planned an Easter scavenger hunt. Teams comprised my sister-in-law, my youngest brother's girlfriend and myself against my two brothers and my husband.

The girls wanted to win so bad! We had to run all over town, taking pictures here and videos there (yes, that was us singing "God Bless America" next to the statue downtown). We had to collect wrapped toothpicks and road apples (I'm pretty sure that was my dad's idea).

After my parents privately tallied the results, they suggested a tie-breaker. My brothers and I knew that meant somebody had won, but just by a hair. After the points were cast appropriately (the boys didn't get credit for the video of a live owl -- they'd downloaded it off the internet on a phone; the girls didn't get credit for a picture of a wrecked car -- it wasn't very wrecked and the girls were not in the picture), I decided to review the points myself.

Alas, I found out that the boys had won -- but by one measley point. But a point is a point. I looked at my dad a few times, and he looked at me, and I knew he was waiting for me to concede. So I did. No tie-breaker after all. But next time, the girls will prevail.

Then we had an egg hunt in my parents' house (it rained all day!). I of course found only one egg, before someone helped me find a second one.

My mom said, "I'm suprised your brother has only found one egg."
I said, "Aren't you surprised I've only found one egg?"
She said, "No, he's a better looker than you are."

So it wasn't totally like being a kid -- when we were kids, my mom never would have admitted that she thinks my brother's a better looker than I am. But I guess you can't really go back.

We had so much fun that evening, and I propose that every adult take a little time each day to act like a kid. You don't have to go on a scavenger hunt and get a photo of yourself standing on your head at Big O Tires, but do something fun, just because! And remember, winning isn't everything. (Yeah, right.)