The Circus

We were invited to a friend's home the evening of Thanksgiving to watch our local team play football. The invitation came with a warning: There will be an infant here. Since all of our children are grown, they felt the need to point that out.

This is not a judgement, just an observation. I'm amazed at how many middle-aged people are willing to birth/adopt/go through surrogacy. This friend's brother is in his 50s and has some lingering health issues. The wife is in her 40s and also had some scares. They now have an infant.

I knew I would be thrilled to play with the baby. And, he was oh so cute and endearing. I'm far too old to raise a child but I could've stuck him in my bag and taken him home.

But during this phone conversation about the invitation, my wacky sense of humor got ahead of my brain. I said, "Yes, we'd love to come over. Since you already have two dogs and multiple houseguests, why don't we bring our maniac dog and the oldies? We could tape it all for Barnum and Bailey."

As it turned out, they have it down to a science. The dogs were well behaved. The baby was precious. One houseguest had already gone to bed before we arrived. They even served hor d'oerves. Get out! Didn't she just make a huge meal a few hours ago? Now, she's feeding us. Of course, we all dug in.

On the way home, I was reflecting. I'm jealous. Their home seems to work like a well-oiled machine. My house is the circus.