The holiday season is that wonderful time of the year when you get to spend more time with your family. Family time means all sorts of things from quiet moments to laughing fits. But as happens in most families, this family time rarely crescendos in scenes that someone would find in an Ozzie and Harriet TV show from the 50s, more like a vignette from the Simpsons.

Our youngest boy is now in second grade. Given his prowess at manipulating simple numbers, we figured a game of Monopoly was in order, so a day before Thanksgiving, while we were still visiting the in-laws, we christened a new game.

Our youngest was the most excited about the prospect. He tore the plastic off of the game, and started setting it up in his own way, since he really had no idea what he was doing. He was also too impatient to read the game's directions, for which he had the reading skills, but he was hampered by the manic energy of a seven year old who wanted nothing more than to be the car in the game.