Happy Mook Day!

One thing I've learned as a parent: sometimes we're willing to make up stories for our kids to get them to do what we want. To put it bluntly, we'll lie using lots of creativity and utilizing good story-telling techniques, and grin with delight as our kids eat it up with a spoon.

The Thompson family is famous for this. The siblings still laugh at almost every family get-together about how gullible they were for believing in candy carrots, river sharks, and watcher elves -- all stories that their dad came up with to get them to eat their veggies, not stray too far into the river, and to be on their best behavior even when they thought no one was looking.

Tonight at the dinner table, Todd would have made his dad proud. Completely improvising, he told the kids that tomorrow is Mook Day. This is the day when the moose are on their way back up north to Santa's house, and if they come across any kids who didn't pick their toys up the night before, they'll "mook" them. "What's mooking?" Easton asked, his eyes wide. I jump in at this point with my own improvising. "Mooking is when the moose will come up to you and blow through his nose really hard, and all this green snot will come flying out and hit you in the face," I say, trying hard to keep my face serious. The next few minutes were occupied by both Easton and Evi eating their potato soup as fast as they could, interspersed with questions about the rules of Mook Day. Todd and I had to do a lot of "creative fibbing" to flesh out the specifics and satisfy their curiosity. Evi's little brow was furrowed in worry. She was convinced that if she didn't get those toys picked up in time, a moose would find her on the playground tomorrow and mook her in front of all her friends.

The kids picked up their room in record time. It was marvelous. But I wonder what the kids will say after school tomorrow after they've told their friends about Mook Day. This might be a holiday that only lasts one year.