Twenty three years ago today, I stood, nervously in a stairwell in Reid Hall… and after a long LONG time, I finally worked up the nerve to kiss this girl.  A year and a half later we were married.  Now, we have four kids and a life full of happiness… joy, sorry, tears, laughter, arguments… and on and on and on.  It’s beautiful.  Thanks to every person who has shared in our lives together.

jb

This was as close as I had to show you what we looked like 23 years ago….  I think I’m pretty lucky.

In the summer of 1976 I was 4 years old…. well, 4 and 3/4.   It was my last summer before I started Kindergarten, and to be honest, I have very few actual memories of that time period, so most likely my love of 76 has been created from a longing for a simpler time and general love of my childhood.  In my mind, 1976 represents a lot of things…. the bicentennial birthday of our country’s freedom… lightning bugs and jar flies… cold watermelon with the juice dripping from my chin as I try to spit the seeds as far as possible… grandparents’ yards filled with cousins, all running around while we wait for homemade peach ice cream to finish.  All things that make me smile.  It was a time before we were all connected 24 hours a day.  A time when you could leave the house without worrying whether or not you have your cell phone in your pocket.  A time when it required a dime to call home from town.

As an adult I wonder if my children will have a time period that they remember with such fondness.  I wonder if I do my job as “dad” and allow them to have the childhood that will make them smile as they approach 40?

Last Saturday we joined several other families in a yard.  A yard with a slip-n-slide that seemingly went on for miles.  Kids ran around in their bathing suits getting wet… with grass clinging to their bare feet.  The adults stood around in small groups, talking about everything, and at the same time, talking about nothing.  Mostly, just enjoying the company of one another.  The air was filled with the haze and smell of burned fireworks.  A smell that always makes me happy.

A speaker hidden somewhere behind a curtain played a continual loop of patriotic music that served as a perfect auditory backdrop for the evening.

A concession area kept the kids well hydrated with sugary sodas and kept their stomachs full with fresh, cold watermelon.

All in all, it was a perfect evening.

Now, I own more photography equipment than I care to describe, but this evening I left it all at home.  I wasn’t a photographer, I was a dad…. I was a friend…. and for a few moments I was 4 years old and it was 1976 all over again.  The only images I took were with my cell phone (as ironic as that is) and most of them are just for me.  I’m only posting two of them…. and the rest are a special gift to myself.  A gift that serves to remind me that a simpler life is right here…. just aching for each of us to participate.  To not answer that phone call…. to just enjoy the company of our families and friends… face to face.

The fireworks were truly spectacular.  The show was beyond anything I had anticipated to see while sitting in a lawn chair in a friend’s yard.  What made it even more special, was that I got to share it with my wife and all of my kids.

This weekend as we celebrate our country’s independence, I hope each of you take the time to search for your 1976… or at least for that particular year that means so much to you.  Have fun, stay safe and take the time to keep a few photos just for yourself.

jb

No longer does the mystery and magic of Santa loom large over our holidays.   We’ve reached the point where even our youngest is well aware that Santa lives in the hearts of parents, in the dreams of adults to see children wake up on Christmas morning and wonder what Santa has left for him.  I’ve enjoyed years and years of lying to my children.  Only lying in the sense that Santa was a man from the North Pole…. as Trisha and I have cherished each and every moment of staying up late on Christmas eve, putting together elaborate doll houses, bicycles and countless other items.  We’ve enjoyed being the only two up as we ate the cookies and drank the milk.  We’ve giggled with one another as we stuffed candy and other small items into our kids’ stockings.  That part of Christmas may have changed, but I still plan on staying up with her tonight to keep our time together.  To keep a tradition of enjoying her company as we revel in the fact that we’ve some how made it through another year.  To keep alive the tradition of giggling like little kids as we anticipate the joy on Conner’s, Erin’s, Amelia’s and Ian’s faces in the morning.

One other tradition we kept alive is our Santa Letter Send Off Party.  Some of our closest and dearest friends, the Carter family, came over last weekend with a van full of helium balloons.   By the time they arrived ours had been in my office for a small period of time, being kept warm by the heat from our fireplace, our letter was ready to go.   All eleven of us, kids and parents, walked out into the openness of the field behind our house and set the balloons free.  This year they went straight up.  No wind.  We watched them for what seemed to be an eternity, but was more like five minutes.  Finally they caught a slight breeze,,, hundreds or thousands of feet in the air and we slowly watched them make their way to the southeast…. then they were no longer in sight.

In past years a few of our letters have been found in Alabama, Indiana, Illinois… and one made it as far as the barbed-wire fence a few hundred yards from our house.  It’s always incredible when we get the letter back from some kind person.   In 2006 our letter made it here… Santa Lives In Paris.

Regardless of what you celebrate…. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice or Festivus, I want to wish you a great time with those you love,,, and those who love you.  Tomorrow my family will celebrate Christmas and the greatest gift I’ll receive is the love of my family.

Here are a few photographs from our letter release.

jb

I’m a lucky man.  I have four beautiful, healthy children.  I have one wife who is more beautiful than the day I married her 19 and a half years ago.   I also have 20 Santa Claus ornaments.  I realize that Santa is the very superficial mascot for Christmas, but he is the symbol we chose to add each year.  Our very first Christmas as a married couple was in 1991, and it was that year that we bought our first Santa ornament for our tree.  We’ve added a new one each year.  It is dated so that we can keep track of which one belongs to which year.  Some of our ornaments are nicer than others.  Some are quite modest.  Some years were lean and we could only afford the 99 cent Santa from the local dollar store.  Other years were more prosperous and we could spend more time looking for just the right one.  What has held true each and every year is that Trisha and I have done this together.

This year we purchased Santa #20.  He’s nothing amazing…. other than that he marks the 20th Christmas I’ve celebrated with my wife.  For that he is most special.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY….. AND TO THOSE WHO DON’T REALLY LIKE ME THAT MUCH.

jb

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