Sid Soup or Stone Soup, which one do you want?

Combat Carl before the tragic accident

We sometimes enjoy watching movies on Sunday nights with our kids, a sort of calm them down and sedate-them-with-colorful-focused-pixels ritual. Tonight we watched Toy Story 1. In this movie there is a kid named Sid who is very cruel to toys (where is PETT (People for Ethical Treatment of Toys) when you need them?). He enjoys stabbing, decapitating, disemboweling, and blowing up his neighbor's toys, his sister's toys, and even his own, all the while sporting his black and white skull shirt and a very wicked laugh.

I have started using some of the characters the boys see in movies as examples of what to do or not to do. The modern day Aesop fable has to be delivered with haste to today's short attention spans. I'm sure I should probably focus more on scripture stories for such lessons, but I sometimes have to depend on Clifford the Big Red Dog to fill in some of the spaces. Dudley Dursley, in the movie Harry Potter, is my example of a spoiled child. When they don’t show gratitude for the many things we give them and constantly ask for stuff, I ask them if they want to turn out like Dudley. That one always seems to get them.

Lemon Meringue avant Mort

Anyway, I decided to use Sid as my example of a mean child tonight with the hope of thwarting their bickering behavior and desire to pick on their little brother. With his supposed uninvolved observation, Douglas , thinking of Sid’s behavior and not his own, noted that "Sid won't be getting anything for Christmas then." Reed further clarified that his punishment would be even worse, that "Sid was going to get girl toys for Christmas!" NO! Not girl toys! I guess some things are worse than coal. Though, if given coal for Christmas, like girl toys, I'm sure they would soon learn that both react well to a lit match. Though, the girl toys would probably have an unexpected Lemon Meringue or Strawberry Shortcake scented smoke.