An exciting weekend had by all.

Friday night, Kathy and I went out to Bones on the boss. Vickie and Jon, Becky and her date Monte, the Tucker-based chiropractor, and Brian and Nancy Pomrenke were in attendance. Kathy and I got raspberry swordfish. Kathy noticed that at expensive restaurants you are only served small portions of wine. Probably has something to do with the price.

Dinner covered many topics including: Tucker, Ted & Becky, the Grinch Who Stole Christmas (and not touching him with a 39 1/2 foot pole, specifically), Jon’s neck-cracking ability, the KKK, whom Monte hates but who at least keep the blacks out of Tucker (awkward moment of the evening), and Louisiana politics.

Dinner ended just before eleven. Kathy and I went in search of Charlie Chandler and the Viceroys. Rumor had it that he was playing at the Cotton Club that very evening. We couldn’t recruit any volunteers, except for Monte who, after being assured it wasn’t full of blacks, thought it sounded like fun. Becky bowed out, though, and they went off in Monte’s squeaky 280Z.

We found Charlie Chandler and the Viceroys. Were fairly impressed. Talked to him after the set. He gave us a demo tape. He didn’t have a job, he reported, but he did have a girlfriend. He thought we looked like a million dollars. I apologized and pointed out that we had just left dinner with the boss. We did stand out. Maybe not a million dollars, but everyone else looked like five, so…

Kathy looked great. Hope Charlie didn’t think we were showing off. We both agreed that we hadn’t changed. Except for Charlie’s longer hair. And he may have a few more smile lines.

Saturday, The four of us climbed in the Corolla and headed up north to a Christmas tree farm. Ted and Grant joined us in Mom’s Honda. None of us had cut our own tree before.

We came up on the farm. A mobile home with Christmas trees growing in the front yard. We browsed, waiting for one of the three saws to come available. Kathy spotted the one we wanted pretty quickly. So I stuck dead branches in it to make it look ugly. Just in case someone else spotted and had a saw. We also picked out a short one for the office.

We cut the office tree first for practice. Danny and Nicole yelled “Timber.” I looked at it laying on the ground and said, “Nah. I don’t want this one.”

Kathy quite literally doubled over with laughter. People started coming up to us from among the trees to see if she was o.k. Looked like she was having severe abdominal pains.

One of my greatest accomplishments in life is making Kathy laugh. And I can never predict what will do it.

The big one was $18 and the little one $13. The owner, a nice man who was surprised that our idea of tying the trees into an open trunk was better than tying it on top, got his 12 year-old daughter to help me and him figure out what $18 and $13 was. Ted beat her to it with $31.

At home Dave Reynics, a pirate’s pirate, stopped by to drop off some ROMs to upgrade the 512K Mac. Two black-market chips for $30 and Nicole can now play Tetris on the kids’ Mac. He hung out for only 2 hours, 2 beers, and 1 cigarette, copying stuff on to the Classic while Kathy and the kids trimmed the tree.

We got an impromtu invite to Nancy & Ted’s. Shaun and I butted heads as I was trying to get Danny & Nicole to sleep. His plan to have them all sleep in the middle under the covers wasn’t going to work, but he was not going to let me explain that to him. He said he was going to tell his mommy. (Good threat.) I pointed out that if he did, he was risking getting evicted. He mulled that over, made his decision, and screamed, “Mommy!”

I threw my hands up, and walked out, saying, “This ain’t going to work.”

Shaun got evicted. Point Jeb.

This morning, Danny and I went to church as Kathy worked and Nicole went to Sunday school. I lifted Danny up during the procession to show him the giant advent wreath in the middle of the church.

“The priest is lighting the candles because Christmas is coming,” I whispered to him.

“Because Santa Claus is coming?” Danny whispered back.

“No. Christmas is Jesus’ birthday. He’s lighting the candles because Jesus’ birthday is coming.”

“Where is Jesus?”

Boy, there’s a tough one. So I pointed to the crucifix and told him that was a statue of Jesus.

Danny looked back and forth between the giant wreath with it’s lit candles and the giant cruicifix in the back of the church.

“Will Jesus blow out his candles?” he asked. I’m glad Kathy wasn’t there for that. She may have doubled over again.

Today Ted and I were resoundingly defeated in touch football by Dad and Grant. Six to one. Dad and Grant’s first win ever. Dad threw just like his high school quarterback days. And he made the best reception of the day. An over-the-shoulder catch at the corner of the end zone.

Sitting in the middle of the field after Dad and Grant left, Ted and I figured out that the whole thing had been a set up. A master plan devised by Dad at least 5 years ago, our last game when Dad was injured.

Dad had sent Grant to college. Given him different goals. Encouraged him to play intramural football. No real pressure on grades.

Meanwhile, he had me getting an MBA and steered me toward getting a good job and to be a responsible father. No time for football.

And he had put a lot of pressure on Ted to make the grade at Vanderbilt. Then shipped him off to Thailand in the Peace Corps.

Ted and I got soft in our passing attack. It was a brilliant plan.

Later the entire crew: The four of us, Mom & Dad, Bob & pregnant Carol, Grant & Sue, and Ted went to our second trip to Six-Flags’ holiday festival. Highlights included the new Connie Island style roller coaster with it’s digital video recording of each ride and sledding. Not as cold this year. Got home at eleven p.m.

Heck of a weekend. 12:54:37 AM