"There should be no sucking sounds under the mistletoe!" my mother yelled, as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut and moved her hands to cover her ears.

"My bad!" her sister said, laughing loudly.

The girls sent me to change while they descended on my poor mother to tickle the loving shit out of her. I returned to find a four-way tickle fight in the front room and stayed in the hallway to avoid becoming the next victim of assault. I didn't leave my hiding place until they were all breathless and had collapsed back into their seats.

My big surprise for them was the poster-sized computer models for the...