I took a look at the letter my DD7 and DS5 wrote to Santa this year. They portrayed their wish list with a Venn Diagram.

I love that, DAD22.

My DD6 is head over heels in love.

DS5 on being asked to not sit on the coffee table:

Me- DS, please get off the table. It's for things only.

DS- Well, I'm a living thing, aren't I? So it seems fair for me to sit on the table, since living things are a type of thing.

Me- Good reasoning. I buy it. Let me revise that: only inanimate things are allowed on the table.

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DS on one of his school friends:

"[Friend] is pretty crusty in the morning, so I generally feel out his mood before determining whether I want to play with him, someone else, or do some solo play. I find by the afternoon, he's usually more pleasant."

Often heard at the dinner table at our house: "I won't give you another math problem until you have another bite."

Me: I never got why people find Wesley Crusher so annoying. I like him.

DD6: I think the problem with Wesley is that he makes people feel less special.

Me: He makes you feel less special?

DD6: Of course not. Are you serious? He is just a fictional character.

Me: Right.

DD6: Right.

Every Christmas we travel a long distance to visit family. The car ride is tiresome so the last few trips have involved "Play Doh Wars", our family's version of Food Channel's "Cake Wars". DD12 and D11 compete in the back seat using DH's ideas (best decorated Christmas stocking, for example).

One competition this year featured Christmas cookies. DD12 made these intricate Play Doh creations. DD11 made 2 lumpy cookies, 1 big, 1 medium. The larger cookie had an unhappy face. DD12 told a story about decorating her cookie. DD11 related that Play Doh Wars made her think of personification which made her think her cookies had thoughts so they had morals as well. These thoughts led her to believe that her biggest cookie was sad because the middle cookie ate the littlest cookie.

DH and I just gave each other "the look". This kid never fails to spout stuff that is just quirky.

DD11 is attempting to analyze middle schoolers just as years ago she tried to figure out grade schoolers. She is 11 years old and stuck with a bunch of hormonally crazy 13 year olds (who are sweet, but boy are they outrageous and emotional, including my almost 13 year old).

In grade school DD produced many documents trying to decipher the secrets of popularity.
Last night she showed me flow charts she is creating. They are elaborate flow charts of everyone's love life. As you may imagine, they are very complicated!!!

DS8's first "written math proof".

Question: Genet multiplied a 3-digit number by 1002 and got AB007C, where A, B, and C stand for digits. What was Genet's original 3-digit number?

DS8's answer (I transcribed his exact words): The answer is 539. y=3 because in the 7C, 3+3 is 6, Z has to be a number 5 - 9 to make the 6 a 7. x is 5 because the number under 2x is a 0, so it has to be 10 no matter what. 10 divided by 2 is 5 so x is 5. The number under Z is zero, but since the 2x is added up to a 10, z has 1 more, so z has to be 9. so xyz = 539.

DS created an exosuit on an action figure and left it sitting on the couch. DH tied a string to it and taped it dangling from a ceiling fan blade so it would surprise DS when he looked up from his book. DD came along and saw it first, giggled, immediately turned on the ceiling fan and it went flying. Just one of those moments when I utterly adore my goofy family!