you guys, can we please talk about how cute my dad is? i just have to share this with you:
{no, i’m not talking about this photo. even though i like it. especially that little half smile.} ;)
my mom has been gone on a 4-day long business trip, and i called my dad on saturday afternoon on the way home from fort worth. mom had told me that he was having the guys over that evening, and sure enough, when i called, he was playing susie homemaker, in the middle of making potato salad for the party that night. and he seemed pretty excited about it. i kinda thought to myself, i wonder how many dads take the time to prepare homemade side dishes in advance to go with the meat they’re going to cook when they have their buddies over. i laughed to myself, but it’s not completely out of the ordinary.
so then i called him on sunday night to find out how the party went. well, apparently it was a big success. he had grilled brats [as in bratwurst – it always looks so weird when i write it out] and they had the potato salad that he’d made and baked beans that one of the guys had brought, and they had moved the table and chairs from the porch out on the grass so they could eat on the lawn. and we have this area in the backyard where we keep the foliage wild and grown out and my dad mows a winding path through it that we call “the nature trail,” so my dad lined the path with tiki torches that led to the woodpile, where he lit up a roaring campfire and they all sat around it for the rest of the evening, and, in my dad’s words, “consumed quite a bit of beer.”
and he said that at one point, one of the guys said, “i should have brought my guitar!” and my dad said, “i have one!” [he has two, in fact], which he brought out and they started to play. and then another guy said, “i should have brought my harmonica!” and dad said, “i have one!” so he went inside and got the harmonica and gave it to that guy. and they sat out there, drinking beer, playing and singing beatles songs until one-thirty in the morning.
and then – we’re still on the phone, and he’s telling me all this – he went to church that next morning, even though he was reallyyy tired. “it reminded me of college,” he told me, chuckling, “because by gosh, no matter how bad you felt, you went to church.” [that was his style- my mom has informed me that indeed, he never missed church in college, despite all the shenanigans he partook in on the weekends!] and he went on to say that he had done some yard work that day and started painting their bedroom. and then he had made some calico beans to go with the leftover brats and potato salad from the night before and had invited mimi [his mother-in-law, mind you] over for dinner, just the two of them. they have a great relationship, but it’s still really sweet. “mimi even asked me for the recipes for the potato salad AND the calico beans!” he had told me proudly. and today he bought her some flowers for her birthday tomorrow since he will be out of town.
now how’s that for a swell guy? yep, he’s a keeper. now if i could only find one of my own just like him. :)
xoxo