Why not 10?

Well, we still had power, whereas most of Seattle did not, and anyway you've always got to save a little wiggle room on your rating scale.

The factors that made it an 8:

David threw up

Rose threw up four times

David countered with three disgusting diapers

Both kids had light fevers

David clung to me and refused to nap

Rose refused my offers of food, water, snuggles, books. . .

Because power was out all over the city, John and Julia (on separate shopping missions) weren't sure they would find the dinner supplies

We wanted to make a nice dinner because it was the first night of Hannukah

And pizza wasn't really an option because that whole power out thing

Miriam and Ariana were perfectly fine (my two nieces, of course, spent most of the day with us), but usually all the kids go play together; two healthy kids plus two sick kids means lots of different meals and activities

I did not get to eat in a timely fashion

I did not get to nap

Our adult to child ratio was not sufficient

The funniest moment: Rose and Ariana fought for the chance to escort Mommom into the house. Julia tried to clear a path, and suddenly there was screaming—Rose because we had had the temerity to move her out of the way, Ariana because Rose had beat her to Mommom's side, David because I wasn't holding him as I tried to tend to Rose. It was like three faucets had suddenly exploded and started spewing all over the livingroom. Mom, Julia, and I were in hysterics. I kept trying to paste a straight face on to console Rose, but it just wasn't working.

The low point: Rose finally accepted one one of my offers—a chance to watch the Angelina Ballerina dvd. Then I couldn't make the dvd player work. David was screaming from his high chair. I hadn't eaten. Mom was feeding and entertaining Miriam and Ariana. The other adults would not return for at least an hour.

The calm moment: Mom was asleep on our couch. Rose was asleep. Dan, Julia, Miriam, and Ariana were back at their house, asleep. John cooked. David finally fell asleep in his stroller. I strolled.

We all reconvened for dinner and the scale tipped back up, but the candles were very pretty.