Fourth of Boo-Hoo

My wife and I have very different takes on holidays. To me it's just another day but for her it is a momentous occasion and cause for celebration.

The Christmas before we started dating was interesting. I had Jack-in-the-Box for Christmas dinner and spent most of the day in a recording studio with two of my best friends, Tommy and Steve. After that we went to the theater and watched a movie. (going to the theater on Christmas was my only Christmas tradition until the last couple years)

Thanksgiving? Let's go bowling. Father's day? Wouldn't have noticed if my wife didn't remind me. Birthdays? Don't ask me to remember your birthday, I have a hard enough time remembering how old I am.

There are two holidays I do enjoy. Halloween (my wife's least favorite) and the Fourth of July. Those days are about having fun more so than tradition or football games. Bekah on the other hand enjoys the rest. I would prefer spending holidays with friends, she prefers family. This Fourth of July, Bekah got her way.

Not that family is a bad thing, I like my family. Its just that with family there's certain impossible expectations. The whole day is spent running back and forth between home and the grocery store (because there's always one more thing that we forgot) making apple pie and homemade ice cream, barbecuing hamburgers, trying to keep the cats (kittens) from escaping and chasing them down when they do escape, negotiating a TV show that eight people can agree on, and trying to figure out which fireworks show we want to watch. By the time you get around to setting off your own fireworks, you just don't care any more and everyone is feeling anti-social. That's no fun.

On the plus side, my parents got to come visit (I haven't seen them since the last time I was in Seattle) and my six year old nephew from Cheyenne came with them.

I'm scared though. An old friend of mine was obsessed with holidays and she would decorate her apartment and throw parties for all of them. Including the random ones like Arbor Day and Secretary's Day and National Quit Smoking Day and... you name it. I went to the parties, had fun playing nerts and poker with everyone else, but I just don't want to be married to someone like that. I'm afraid that Bekah will turn into that type of person and we will be continuously celebrating yet another holiday, trying to remember where we put the St. Patrick's Day decorations after last year's party.

In other news, my six year old nephew is a sports prodigy and thinks I'm fat. (but not as fat as his daddy)