Mari & Ilna-you guys are the absolute best! Thank you for EVERYTHING! With a special thanks to Mari for trading days with me and posting Friday so I could have a little extra time. YOU'RE THE BEST!

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Another Operation

"Could you help me with something, please?" Jacob asked as he plopped down, notebook in hand, on the couch in the condo living room beside Joseph who was looking over some notes for an upcoming presentation at Pearl. "If you're not too busy that is."

"I'm never too busy for you." Joseph put his papers on the coffee table. "What do you need?"

"Do you remember when we built the obstacle course on the beach for Angie?" Jacob asked.

"Of course I do." Joseph smiled affectionately. "That was a fun day."

"I thought so too!" Jacob's enthusiasm got the best of him, as if often did, and he jumped to his feet. "We read a story at school last week about a group of kids who held their own backyard Olympics." He raced to the far side of the room, turned, then hurdled the ottoman on his way back to Joseph's side. "They made up all kinds of games and they had an award ceremony and prizes and it looked awesome."

"Sounds like a great idea." Joseph had a feeling he knew where this was headed but allowed Jacob to be the one to lay out the plan.

"I was thinking we could do something like that over Christmas when everybody is here." Jacob opened his notebook and held it out towards Joseph. "I wrote down a few ideas for games and some of them I could set up myself but then I realized I was gonna need some help with some of the others."

"I'm your guy," Joseph said eagerly. "Just tell me what you need me to do."

"Awesome!" Jacob's face lit up immediately. But … " He looked around to see if anyone was within ear shot. "I was thinking maybe it could be a surprise. Like an extra Christmas present from me to everyone." The youngsters face turned serious. "I get to do a lot of fun things with Uncle Steve and Aunt Catherine and Uncle Danny and Uncle Chin and Aunt Kono and you and Aunt Elizabeth and Grandma Ang and my mom and my brothers and sisters and lots of times when I offer to help they tell me I don't need to. I'm pretty sure it's because they still think of me as a little kid." He toed the carpet then turned his large, expressive eyes towards Joseph. "I'm getting older now and I want to help with things."

Joseph nodded in understanding.

Because Jacob retained his ready enthusiasm and seemingly boundless energy even as he grew older it was easy to fall into the trap of still seeing him as that excitable youngster he was when they first met. But truth be told he was growing into a thoughtful, responsible young man who worshipped his oldest brother and wanted to be just like him. Which was a very worthy goal.

"I understand that," Joseph said. "And I respect it. Just tell me what I can do to help."

Jacob sat back down and opened his notebook. "I went to the library and Miss Kristin helped me look up ideas for games." He began reading. "We can make a balance beam kinda like we did before, but I saw one article where it said if you make it out of a hose, or pool noodles, you can add all kinds of bends and turns. It doesn't have to be straight. I was thinking we could do both. Straight for the younger kids like Angie and Joan and crooked for the bigger kids."

"That's a great idea," Joseph said sincerely. "And it's very nice of you to make sure the little kids get included too."

Jacob beamed at the praise then grinned. "For a long time, I was the little kid."

Joseph tousled his hair. "What else do you have in mind?"

"Miss Kristin helped me print out some ideas from the computer." Jacob pulled the folded sheets from his notebook. "There's this one where you play volleyball except you use beach towels." He showed Joseph the picture. "There are two people on a team and they hold the towel between them and that's what you have to use to hit the ball. It's hard to explain with words but it looks like fun."

"That's a good one," Joseph replied. "Everybody loves volleyball. Especially Aunt Catherine and Aunt Elizabeth."

"This one looks hard." Jacob moved on to his next idea in the classic rapid-fire style he used when excited. "You have to carry a beach ball using pool noodles instead of your hands. If you have a big family like ours you can play with teams. Do you think this one would be too hard?"

"Maybe for the little kids," Joseph acknowledged, "But I think it would be fun for the older kids and if Angie and Joan want to play someone can help them."

Jacob grinned. "Our family is good at helping."

Joseph nodded in agreement. "They certainly are."

"This one looks like fun, but I would definitely need help," Jacob said as he pulled out a picture of the next game on his list.

Joseph looked at the page and saw five Olympic style rings made out pool noodles and suspended from a frame, so they hung vertically.

"You have to throw a ball and if it goes through one of them you get a different number of points depending on the color." Jacob bit his bottom lip. "Do you think we could build this, Uncle Joseph?"

"I know we can," Joseph said confidently.

Jacob beamed as he added another page to the yes pile then moved on to the next idea. "We can make hurdles using pool noodles. Little ones for the little kids, medium ones for people like Kaitlin, Dylan and me, and big ones for Cody and Jadon and Uncle Steve. And Casey too. She can jump really high."

Joseph chuckled.

"We have to do a water balloon toss," Jacob continued, barely taking a breath. 'That's super fun. We did it one day in gym class. And we can do a three-legged race. And see who can hula hoop the longest. And play horseshoes. And then I was thinking for the very last thing we could have a tug of war."

"Looks like you've put quite a bit of thought into this," Joseph said.

"If you think there are other games that would work better … " Jacob's voice trailed off.

"Absolutely not." Joseph was adamant. "This is your idea. You're in charge. I'm just here to help. You let me know what you need me to do."

Jacob's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Absolutely." Joseph rubbed his hands together excitedly. "I'm excited to get started. Maybe we should call this Operation Jacob's Games."

The youngster pondered for a second then his face lit up. "Let's call it Operation Family Olympics."

He held up his hand for a high five and Joseph happily obliged him. "Perfect."

THE END

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