We are family

With our oldest child gone to college and the other three yapping at her heels, I am most happy to have all four kids under our roof for Thanksgiving.
It wasn't too long ago that we were sleep-deprived and knee-deep in diapers and baby bottles. Now, we are a few years shy of an empty nest.
When you have a baby, everyone tells you to hold on; that childhood is fleeting and the kids grow up so fast. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just give me five hours of uninterrupted sleep.
But, turns out, everyone is right. Saving time in a bottle? Wish I could. Don't know what you've got till it's gone? Don't I know it.
So, while the masses are out post-Thanksgiving, trampling Wal-Mart workers to death and shooting each other in the aisles of Toys R Us, I'm deliberately, stubbornly holding onto each minute, letting it drag out into pure, blissful, mind-bending boredom.
The less I do, the less busy I am, the longer time takes. Four days of being all together stretch into a wondrous blur of nothingness.
The conversations are far from stellar. A few grunts and groans. The typical taunts, teasing and tears. And yet, I am loving the noise.
What used to drive me over the edge, pulling out my hair along the way and going off on a psycho mommy rant of can't-we-all-just-get-along, today gives me the warm fuzzies.
If only for four days, our six separate parts come together and make us whole again. It is a feeling that I will both chase and cherish forever.