Enjoy your day, Mom’s. You deserve much more than a single day for all that you do. I know that without his Mommy, Liam would always be dressed in ragged, food-stained, unmatching outfits, enjoying hearty dinners of Gummy Krabby Patties, Candy Corn, and Coco Wowa. (Coca-Cola for those of you without 2 year olds.) So thanks, Moms. We Dads may mow the yard and grill the burgers and squish the spiders and believe we share chores equally (Ha!), but the universe is run by Mommies. So raise your sippies, ye sons and daughters. Three cheers for Mommy! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip HOORAY!

So, honey…. What’s for dinner?

Liam and I had some fun playing in the snow today. He sure loved having Daddy pull him around the neighborhood yards all afternoon. And he got to make his first ever snowman, albeit a teency weency one. The pics are on the photo site. And I finally got around to uploading last Christmas and his birthday. Enjoy.

Off into the sunset… If that’s not just a picture of the perfect Sunday drive, I don’t know what is. We took Liam to the park yesterday, where he met up with peeps Carter and Jackson for a drive in their pimped out Escalade. Sorry for the photo quality, I took these with my cell phone.The whole series is here.

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Monday night Missy and I took Liam to see The Original Harlem Globetrotters. (Thanks to the bestest friend in the whole wide world for hookin’ us up!) I was somewhat nervous at first that he wouldn’t be able to focus on the action, but after we got him shouting “Basketball” ALL the way to the RSEC, (seriously, the whole stinkin’ way) we knew he’d have a blast. And boy did he love it, but truth be told… I think Mommy and Daddy enjoyed it even more. Now, if I could only get “Sweet Georgia Brown” out of my head….

I’m sure everyone is prepping their homes and hearts for a festive holiday season. Myself, I’ll just be glad to have a few days off. It’s amazing how weary and haggard a 20-something can become this time of year. With burdens of time, travel, and treasury increasing exponentially as the yule draws near, I find myself yearning for Christmases past. Long ago holidays with Mom and Dad, aunts and uncles, cousins and grands all huddled around what seemed from my young stance to be a nearly fifty foot Christmas tree, laden with acres of bright shiny packages, yearning to have their wrappings torn asunder, at long last loosing the clicks and whirs of brand new Christmas toys. Each new package bringing with it a new sense of wonder and possibility, the magic of Christmas.

I guess as a child you never understand the behind-the-scenes, how Mom and Dad didn’t really have enough money to put all those packages under that tree, the hours of work in holiday preparation in addition to the regular workaday world. But somehow they always found a way to make certain Christmas was special. Christmas is a magical time when you’re a child, all cookies and lights. I guess I just wish it was magical for me again.

Dear Santa,

This Christmas I’d like for you to bring me presents to give to my friends and family. I’d like you to help me show them how grateful I am for all the help and support they’ve given me this year. I want to give them all the world, but all I can muster on my own is a heartfelt “Merry Christmas.”

I’d like you to bring me some toys to give to my son. I’ve already gotten him some really great presents, but I’ll never be able to give him all the things I want to show him how proud of him I am, how special he is to me, and how much I love him and always will.

Please bring me a diamond necklace to give to my wife, just like the one she saw on TV. I want so much to be able to show her how clearly I still remember that day she walked down the aisle on her Daddy’s arm, how beautiful she was all in white, glowing with happiness and love. I want to show her that to me she’s still that beautiful glowing young bride and that every day with her is a day I cherish in my heart.

And if it’s not too much, Santa, I sure could use some help to pay the rent, and the electric, and the car payment. My wife and I both work so hard to pay our bills, but sometimes it just feels as though the deck were stacked against us.

That’s it though, Santa. That’s all I want for Christmas. If you could handle all of that for me, it just might bring back my magic of Christmas. But if you can’t, I understand. Santa’s a busy man. There’s a world full of children who need their Christmas magic, and I wouldn’t trade a single moment’s magic from any child for a lifetime of wonder in mine.

And if you see Jesus, would you ask him to tell my Mom and Dad that I love them, and to thank them for all the wonderful Christmases they worked so hard to give me. I don’t think I ever truly appreciated it until now.

Okay, that’s the last of my list, Santa. That’s all I want.

…and maybe a new TV.