Sunday Twilight

We’ve really perfected the art of lazy Sundays at our house. Church goes from 1 to 4 p.m. so by the time we get home we are ready to put on sweats and goof around the rest of the day.

Xander had spent 1/2 the morning Saturday putting together the teeter-totter Mary and Gabe got for Christmas. But a snowstorm in the afternoon forced him to bring it into the family room to finish. All six kids teetered and tottered and came up with increasingly dangerous games. Gabriel found a picture of 3 kitties in the newspaper and had me cut it out so he could tape it to his wall, “So I can look at them if I am ever feeling a little sad.”

After dinner, Mary was obsessed with her dollies and Gabriel with his Playmobil. Stefan pulled out his new violin to practice and Erik started a grudge match in Scrabble.

When will Erik learn that he can’t beat me in Scrabble? He owns the chess board and I own the Scrabble board and never the twain shall switch. I gave a half-hearted effort sitting and reading my book while he spluttered and searched his laptop for winning words. Ha! He’ll never come close. Finally he banished me to the couch and found small people that he could actually beat. Well, he couldn’t beat Ben(a 56 point word!) but on the next game he managed to send Hans into a screaming, crying, losing fit with the word “JOY.”

My book was Twilight. If you’re within a 100 miles of any teenage girl you’ve surely heard of this book. I hadn’t bothered to read it yet because it’s, ick, about vampires. But Claudia and my sister, two of my favorite reading advisors, recommended it to me in the same week and I put it in my Amazon cart.

My teenage boys saw the title and said, “Oh Edward!” in mocking voices. “Dad you’ve got competition now!”

They haven’t read it but have heard A LOT about it from all the girls they know. And I now understand what all the fuss is about– it’s not about the writing or the suspenseful storyline. The appeal is in gorgeous, intelligent and talented Edward– hero extraordinaire who loves our heroine Bella fully and absolutely. He is attracted to her beauty and chemistry from their first meeting and grows to love her mind and humor as well. He tells her she’s beautiful when she’s wearing a holey t-shirt and sweatpants, he constantly tells her how wonderful she is even when she trips and stumbles and most of all she never has to compete for his affection. They go out to dinner and all the waitresses flirt with him; he doesn’t even give them a passing glance. He only has eyes for Bella.

Truly, this is every girl’s fantasy; to be chosen, to be loved and desired, to be loved completely for herself and to be the absolute center of affection. But hubby doesn’t have any competition here. Though lacking Edward’s superhuman perfection and happily, is not a vampire, Erik has always been my Edward and still has the ability to electrify me with his presence, dazzle me and make me dizzy on a regular basis.

I neglected my messy house and finished the book this morning. Click, click– thanks to Amazon.com I now have the next two books in the series on their way to my house.

P.S. Doesn’t my cute neighbor look JUST like Bella? She should have auditioned for the movie.