30 DEC 25

Both boys groggily open New Years Eve-Eve to probably the flu which left Puck shaking in the chills the previous night... somehow this doesn't fully keep them from bothering their sister though...

...who has taken advantage of her temporary reign over the house and is lounging on the couch eating Nutella with a wooden tasting spoon...

It's a short life though... Yali emerges to sneeze himself into a nosebleed before turning maniacally to his sister...

“MO-O-O-O-O-M! HE-E-E-E-E-LP!”... Patience flails around the house with Yali shortly behind her...

“Yali don't be chasing your sister around the house with your flu napkins...”

It's afternoon...

...the mobile mechanic has finished installing something else in Puck's car...

Everything is so quiet that Oxbear decides it's a good time to leave on a personal errand...

About the moment the door clicks behind him... the boys activate “Annoy the Girls” mode... as the matches come out and pencils are being catapulted across the room frequently finding bullseyes...

“MO-O-O-O-O-M!” Patience yells from the couch as she chucks a pencil back at Puck... bounces off the top of his head...

“HAHAHAHAHA!” Puck laughs at her accidental marksmanship... as he continues cooking a shaft of graphite over the flame of my new pine candle watching it turn red...

“Boys stop coughing over everything!”...

Meanwhile the dog is howling at a pack of kids walking the neighborhood... “Thar she blows!”... as they scream in fear at her... Patience scoots out to apologize and escort her back inside...

By this time the internet has gone out through the rest of the day and into the next...

Evening hits with the boys hacky coughing from their designated spaces...

And Patience... hustling the dog back indoors again somehow immediately rams her head into the cup of boiling tea in my hand... sloshes over her scalp... “OW!”...

Gold stars for everyone...