The family band howls at midnight

Tonight, we broke out Dad's birthday present—Beatles Rock Band.

Now, Dad's birthday is in September, but because of his crazy schedule, he hasn't really been home long enough to make the trip to the basement to play the game. So tonight, after filling up on our traditional Thanksgiving lunch of White Castles (seriously) and a traditional dinner of all the fixings at my Me-Ma and Pe-Pa's house, the five of us headed to the basement. (Donnie and Stephen, being military, are away from us this Thanksgiving, boo hiss!)

We played and played. Dad loved it.

Then, as we were really hitting our groove (Dad was singing), Jennie started—quietly, stealthily—to howl.

The music was so loud that we didn't hear her at first.

But Layla did.

Did you know that Layla, being pack animal, and the cousin of the wolf, howls when her people howl to her? (I suppose it's embarrassing that we figured it out. But it's great fun to get her howling. When I was a little kid and didn't yet have a dog but wanted one so bad, I used to sit out in our tree house and bark and howl. The dogs in the neighborhood would answer me, and I thought that was so cool.)

Anyway.

We're singing and playing our hearts out.

And Layla started howling.

Background vocals from the dog!

And we started laughing.

And laughing.

I had tears coming down my cheeks.

We could barely see the screen, but valiantly, the show went on!

We finished the song in fine fashion, still laughing and wiping our eyes.

Layla wagged her tail, and Jennie giggled.

(I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings!)