Not Playing Possum

November and December are without a doubt my busiest months, both at home and at work.

We host an annual Early Thanksgiving, which has blossomed into a sit down potuck dinner for 70 which is almost immediately followed by a party I throw at work for 200, then for staff at work for 80.

On top of that we throw all the rest of the holiday craziness, kids plays, Wendy and Ryan's birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and a trip back to Nebraska for the Christmas holidays.

By the time I get back to the Midwest, honestly, all I want to do is collapse in a chair.

This was the weekend after our enormous potluck. So it was supposed to be the weekend we put the house back in order. Which would have been fine if we hadn't had house guests for the Thanksgiving vacation.

Happily, it's our favorite family, and that makes all the difference in the world.

Unfortunately, today meant a lot of putting stuff back, cleaning, and getting our world back in a little bit of order before the week starts.

Wendy had asked me to grab our big metal bucket out back to be used as Woodstock's nest in the school Charlie Brown Christmas play (Abby is playing Woodstock). You know, the last thing I expected to see when I lifted it up was an incredibly angry mother opossum baring her teeth at me. Ryan was behind me and I jumped and pushed him back into the garage. He had no idea what happened. He thought there was a skunk underneath there. Nope, just an angry opossum.

After going back with a large poker and being greeted once again by those bared teeth, I decided it wasn't the brightest idea in the world to take on a possibly rabid varmint in my back yard. (The coach of Ryan's soccer team just picked up a snake last week, only to discover it was a baby rattle snake, which also has a venomous bite.)

When I came in to tell Wendy her response was, "Wow, really." Then a pause. "Well I guess your turning the yard into a nature sanctuary is really starting to work."

Damn her eyes.