my children did it right

I have no expectations for Father’s Days. In fact, the whole idea of creating a holiday so that one can be honored and recognized as a father goes against my inner voice. "My kids truely love me and they are proving it today by giving me a gift on a day that every other kid is doing the same thing. I’m so lucky!"  I don’t get it.

But some very fine things happened this weekend that I appreciated and my kids played a part in making it so. Friday afternoon, we had Dean over and even though Camille had her friend Auriron over and wanted us to watch them swim; she didn’t make too big a deal out of when we said, "no." Our neighbors took the kids to a party for Jennifer’s students and Dina and I were without kids, which is rare for us. So Saturday we spent most of the day just hanging out.

I stayed up late that night watching a motorcycle race at Hangtown. It reminded me of my cousin Mike, who is one of the best friends I have, and how we used watch the races there. I woke up in the morning to Stefan saying in a rather loud voice, "I won’t wake papa up!" to Camille. And for the most part, he was pretty quiet so I got to doze for another hour or so. Dina made crepes for breakfast. Stefan drew me a really cool painting of a Duccati and Camille made me a beautiful card. They presented me with the new Pink Martini CD which we listened to together. In the late afternoon, Dina made buscuits and we met with a group of the embassy crowd and drove out to the dunes to have a picnic dinner. Folks brought fried chicken and salads, there were lots of desserts, wine, and plenty of food. A beautiful evening and we all headed home in the dark that falls almost immediately after sunset here. Father’s Day or not, my kids are great!