When we were young, my Mom started the tradition of the 12 days of Christmas. If I remember right, this was a Scandinavian tradition, or maybe German. I’ll have to ask my Mom. Anyhow for 12 nights you put your shoe outside your door and St. Nick usually brings you an orange or some small gift. In the event you haven’t been behaving, you could get a stick or a lump of coal! Regardless, our boys are all in. A few years ago they did get a stick once and it is well remembered. The oldest put his letter to Santa out last night with his shoe while the youngest wrote his a few days ago, went down to my office, and stuck it in a Fed Ex envelope. He addressed it to Santa Claus, North Pole, from Ty. That was it.
The best thing about Christmas is seeing the anticipation and excitement through the eyes of a child. My Mom is still asking me what I want when in truth, I already have it. I have a beautiful wife and two great kids. We’re all pretty healthy (can I ask for 6 pak abs?), my Mom, brother and sisters, Aunt B, and all the misses family is doing pretty well, and at least we have a roof over our head and aren’t going hungry (note the lack of 6 pak abs!). Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to get the latest electronic gadget or some new clothes (think Armani suit) or something else you wouldn’t normally buy or be able to afford for yourself, but seeing your kids excitement and believe in the season is the best gift of all. I’m not sure at what age you switch over from wanting to receive more to wanting to give but it happens to all of us, I hope. Personally I would much rather give than get and if I had a bunch of money, you all would be showered with gifts. I still try to go overboard for the misses because she deserves it. Those of us that really know her know she rarely asks for anything and always thinks of others before herself. Who wouldn’t want to do something for a person like that? As for the kids, when we were young, my Mom would always say, “now next year, we’re not buying as much for you kids” yet year after year she would go overboard and spoil us. I must get the “giving gene” from her. As far as the kids go, yes they will still get spoiled (partly due to Uncle T and Aunt B) but we’re trying hard to make them understand the value of everything and no matter what, will not buy junky China manufactured toys anymore. There getting useful things (think sports equipment) and some old time toys, made in the good old USA. I can’t go into details as some of you might slip but I’m sure you’ll hear all about it on Christmas. Ok, now to the day,
The misses works from 9:30 until 6pm while I have a bunch of work to do myself. The oldest ones birthday is coming up this Saturday. He is having a party in the afternoon with his friends and then we’re going out for a family dinner, (Mom and Dad, his little brother and a friend), that evening. It’s a big expense but when I was a kid, my parents would always let us choose wherever we wanted to go for our birthday dinner. On top of that, this year he’s 10 so it’s a pretty big deal. Well we are going to Elways in Cherry Creek. Through my magic, I managed to get us in at 5pm but we have to be gone by 6:45. This is just fine with us as they’re booked solid with holiday parties. It’s a great steak restaurant owned by the former Denver Bronco quarterback, John Elway. They’re going to do something special for his birthday as I sell them a bunch of wines so we have a bit of a connection. We need to come up with some nice outfits for the boys to wear. It will be lots of fun!
Yesterday I received a call from the misses around 2pm telling me to get over to the school quick as the oldest one was reading a poem he wrote to his class. I made it just in time to see him stand up and deliver. He did a great job! The rest of the day was spent going over to the book store for “school night”and although we didn’t spend much (1 stocking stuffer) the kids played with all their friends and the school received a percentage of all sales. We arrived home around 6:30, had a quick dinner and headed off to bed. It’s now 5:15 and I need to run to the gym.
We hope you all are doing great and , and in the words of Tim Tebow, have a blessed day!
God Bless,
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