On this Thanksgiving Day of 2011, I am thankful for a couple of things.
New Family Members My sister (Emily) and her husband (Sean) are having their first baby in April. On Tuesday, they found out it was a baby girl. I am incredibly happy for them and am (selfishly) looking forward to being an uncle. I’m also kind of excited to be around a little baby again. My babies are full-blown kids now and resemble nothing of their baby selves anymore. I do miss that. Not enough to have another child of my own, mind you. But, as the uncle, I can play that game of holding them, playing with them, and then giving them back to their parents for all of those non-pleasant baby things. Score!
My Dad We came down to Columbus to spend Thanksgiving with Jayme’s parents. As I was escaping the loud kids and endless turkey sandwiches (not my favorite), I passed by the old Sheraton hotel (now a Doubletree something-or-other) by the now-defunct $1.50 Carmike Cinemas theater. Something struck me as I was looking at the place. I was taken back about 20 years, right there on the spot. Dad and I were walking into the hotel’s ballroom. We were there for a baseball card show. Remember how I said I was a collector? Yeah, I collected baseball cards. A lot of them. I never had any allowance money for very long because I would always spend it on baseball card packs at the Sing store or the occasional baseball card show.
Being a father now and really having to worry about money in all facets of life, I can appreciate the vast amounts of money “wasted” on baseball cards as I was growing up. I mean, let’s face it, Caroline’s obsession with American Girl stuff is no different. Every time she wants to spend her allowance money on overpriced pieces of “furniture” for these doll things, I cringe. I get it, though. I’m sure my dad thought the same thing as we walked through that ballroom and my eyes lit up when I saw some card that I really, really, really wanted. But, he kept taking me. Because it made me happy. And he kept giving me extra money (when he could) for extra card packs. Would some people consider that teaching me irresponsible habits? Maybe. But that made him my dad. And, I as I sit here now, I can only thank him for that.
