Dear Kid,

To all those who are celebrating, Merry Christmas.

To those celebrating the holiday of I Ate Too Much Chinese Food last night, happy that too.

To those traveling, travel safe.

To those at home, enjoy.

To those seeing family, enjoy.

To those seeing friends, enjoy.

To those taking care of other people’s puppies, thank you.

To those working today, thank you for taking care of the rest of us.

To those not working today, enjoy your day.

To those being dragged places by their parents, thank you for your patience and your good attitude.

To those doing the dragging, thank you for your patience and your good attitude.

To those being separated from their electronic devices for some or all of the day, you’ll survive–I promise.

To those doing the separating, excellent!

To those who let me sleep slightly later today, thank you.

To those playing Boggle today, good luck.

To those playing Boggle against me, bring it.

And to everyone, happy today.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

It’s my friend Toby’s fault.

Toby and I haven’t seen each other in some number many a lot of years. But My Friend The Internet helped us re-friend. Ain’t Facebook wonderful?

A few weeks ago, Toby and I played a couple of rounds of Word Crack. Due to my superior Boggle skills, I had a wonderful time playing and winning (also I had practiced).

Last night, this supposed “friend” of mine invited me to play Words on Tour on Facebook.

Being an articulate sort, I instant messaged her “Huh?” followed by “How do you play?”

“It’s like Boggle, but with extra challenges.”

Word Crack rounds last two minutes. So even if you (and by “you” I mean me) play one or two (or five) extra rounds, I can generally escape without losing an entire day.

Not so with Words on Tour. Some of the “How to Play” instructions are clear; some less so (that’s why Toby is winning—and that’s the story I’m sticking with).

Sixteen hours later, I realized my earlobes were cramping up and I hadn’t written One. Single. Word for today’s blog.

I suggested Toby write the blog.

She didn’t answer.

Always said she was smart.

Gotta go now. I ran out of lives on Level 32, but I should be good to go by now.

Love, Mom