A bit of adventure

Last night the wind picked up as we were putting the kids to bed, and my husband made a passing comment about hoping the power wouldn't go out. Carbon took that idea and ran with it, getting very excited about being prepared for a power outage. While I lit some candles in the living room, "just in case", he ran around gathering up flashlights and checking their batteries.

When the power actually did go out, Hypatia's night light went out and she started screaming that she was in the dark. He was thrilled to go "rescue" her with his flashlight, and lead her back into the circle of light we had in the living room.

With our electric camp lantern giving us light, everyone got to listen to my husband read out of Bunnicula, and we were just settling down when my sister-in-law arrived. She had been shopping when the power went out in the big box-store she was in, so she came by our house before going on to her own dark house. The whole town lost power, it seems. My husband went out on the porch with the lantern to light her way in, and it made me think of some scene in a Little House book.

I ended up sleeping in the living room with the kids, all camped out around the lantern so they wouldn't be afraid of the dark. We could still see and hear the wind whipping through the trees and into our house, and there were even three Booms! and flashes as transformers blew up.

All of this would have just been an inconvenience if it had just been us adults. But with the unbridled enthusiasm of the kids, it took on the flavor of a fun adventure. It was a lot of fun, and now he is super-proud of how prepared he was. A sweet family adventure.