Happy Birthday, Dad!

By -
Gretch and I traveled to Washington this to celebrate my dad's 63rd birthday. His birthday is actually on Tuesday, but my brother Abram and his fiancee, Jen, were coming down this weekend to see my brother Aaron's daughter in a play on Friday, and they are going to Minnesota for Christmas, so it was decided that we would celebrate Dad's birthday a little bit early. (Which really isn't that early, seeing as we typically celebrate birthdays on the Sunday before the actual day. Unless it was for my birthday--those Sundays quite often coincided with the Super Bowl and, let's be honest: nobody wants to celebrate a birthday in competition with the Super Bowl. Not even people like my family members who, with few exceptions, have little to no interest in professional American football.)

We spent Friday afternoon at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Peoria with Jen and Ariana and looked at books for an hour. (Have I mentioned yet that I am a voracious and unabashed bibliophile? If you haven't noticed this, check out my substituting blog and see what I've been doing all this past week.

After dinner with the family, we had cake and ice cream and watched Dad open his birthday presents, including a box full of newspaper and nothing else. Dad likes opening things, and we always enjoy taking advantage of opportunities to get back at Dad for the loving torment he put us through as children (such as hiding Easter baskets inside furniture and hanging from bags outside second-story windows). My brother Aaron and his family came by for the festivities, and we exchanged some Christmas gifts with Abram and Jen.

Today we went to church with Mum (Dad and Ariana were not feeling well). I had a chance to catch up with some friends from my younger days, and found out that there are still people in the Morton Ward who don't know that I have curly hair--even though I've had my hair like this since 2006. After church we had an early dinner and then hung out with Abram and Jen some more before helping decorate Mum and Dad's Christmas tree. I also helped Dad set up his blog, which is going to focus on stories from his life, starting "From the Beginning"(the title of the blog).

Fun times were had, and I'm glad that we were able to come up and visit my parents. We are going to be back on Christmas morning and will be staying in town for several days. But right now, it is all about Dad and his birthday. Oh, and before Christmas, it will also be about my oldest sister-in-law, whose birthday is also on Tuesday.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Am I? On Iconography, Faith, and Self-Identity

By -
Image
In one of the great classic works of French literature, the author Victor Hugo tells the story of Jean Valjean, a man who spent nineteen years in prison, growing angrier and more filled with hate toward the world with each passing day. The first five years were for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s starving family, but then he suffered for fourteen additional years for attempting to run away. The story of Les Misérables follows his journey from his release from prison on parole to a life of service, sacrifice, love, mercy, grace, and, ultimately, redemption. In the musical adaptation of this story, a pivotal moment takes place early in the story when Jean Valjean, who had been gifted a meal and safe shelter for the night from a kindly bishop, gives in to temptation, steals the bishop’s silverware and runs off, only to be captured by the local constables. Valjean claims that the silver was given as a gift from the bishop but the police, not believing the words of a cri...
Read more

Make A Joyful Noise

By -
My father-in-law recently blogged about music, and lamented that Western society does not produce music except for the purpose of providing entertaining diversions. While I am sorely tempted to link to his blog, I will refrain. Rather, I wish to simply present my own thoughts on why I consume music. And consume it I do. I love music. I devour it. It is a part of my being. Gretch and I almost always have music playing in our home, in the car, and when we are working (and can get away with it). I do not know when my love of music first emerged, but I would argue that it has always been with me. My own father is a talented musician, although I fear there are times when this talent has been hidden from the world. Yet some of my earliest recollections of my childhood include Dad breaking out his amazingly awesome Martin D35 acoustic guitar and playing songs like "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by The Tokens, "Boogie" by John Hartford, and various songs from the world of classi...
Read more

Who Are You?

By -
A thought has been running through my mind this morning and it doesn't seem to be planning on leaving any time soon. I have things I need to get done (such as applying for more jobs for the coming school year), so I am hoping that this may help me at least share the thought well enough that I can worry about other things. The thought is really more of a question. Who am I? Who are you? How do I define myself? How do you define yourself? So often in our lives, we have opportunities to introduce ourselves to new people. I've mentioned before how I have this habit of introducing myself as Alex Valencic but, if I am writing my name, it is always Alex T. Valencic. After sharing my name, it is inevitable that someone will want to know more about me, and the first thing they ask is what I do. How we respond to this question says a lot about what we think of ourselves, I think. When someone asks me what I do, I respond by either saying I am a teacher or I am a professional educat...
Read more