Recession Mama Michele Ashamalla: I love playdates. Today, the original plan was an ambitious one: The three kids and I were going to hit an amusement park. It is winter vacation, and there are some pretty good deals to be had. Pretty good, but not great ....

As I was online looking for a deal, I got a call asking if my youngest wanted to go over to a friend's house. Since she had gone over to this friend's the last time, I offered to host -- so by 11 AM, I had four kids instead of three. Then my son asked if a friend of his could come over, too, so shortly after noon, I had five kids at home: an 11-year-old, two 8-year-olds and two 5-year-olds. I like long playdates, so I planned to keep everyone until 7 PM or so.

Would you believe that I was able to organize a bookshelf, sort through eighty e-mails, do a load of laundry, write a few thank-you notes, do a little after-Christmas tidying and cook dinner with all those kids in the house? The little ones spent hours in the backyard playing "restaurant" in the sandbox and drawing a chalk city on the concrete in the back. When they got too cold, they came in and played with Lincoln Logs. The 8-year-olds played Stratego, built a fort with couch cushions and tinkered with an electronic circuit-board set that was a Christmas present. The 11-year-old played with the others some, helped me with the bookcase and read a new book.

They were all so good that I let them watch a movie during dinner, after which we broke open another gift: one of those big tubs of popcorn. We all had a much-needed day at home after a lot of holiday craziness, and I saved myself the stress (and money) involved in an amusement-park visit. We'll probably end up going sometime during the vacation, but I'm going to see if I can squeeze in another playdate or two first!