Perspective

For real. 18-1…ugh. But I woke up this morning and I felt good. Grandma and Grandpa AND Nana and Papa came over for an unreal chili dinner and to watch the Patriots/Giants Super Bowl last night. Now we’ve been as focused as anyone on the Patriots this season. All season. Each week we watched with awe as they slowly rolled over opponents and created this mysterious shield of confidence around themselves and we believed all the hype about maybe the “greatest quarterback ever” and maybe the “greatest team ever” and all that historical nonsense. It sure looked like it. Tegan and Finn can both pick Tom Brady’s picture out of Sports Illustrated (and Brett Favre’s too, thank you Grandpa) and they understand that we like to watch Tom play football on Sunday afternoons. So you’d think the loss of the game last night would have put me in a rough mood this morning.

Especially because right when I was heading up to bed, bummed about the loss and tired from the weekend, I heard a huge crash at the front of our house outside. I went downstairs and Cristin and I looked at where a huge chunk of snow and ice had fallen off the roof and broken a storm window in the playroom. We shook our heads and inside I was thinking, “Yeah, so that’s the kind of night this is.” I went back upstairs, re-tucked the snoozing kids, shaved and went to bed.

Sure, I didn’t want a broken first floor window at 11 PM on a Sunday night. And of course, I wished the Patriots had won the game. It would have been special for them.

But it was special. It was truly special for us. We got to have dinner and uninterrupted play time with all grandparents at one time. How cool is that? Then Cristin and I got to watch a whole game and discuss all the details and laugh and joke and have some beer and wine with our parents. How cool is that?

Tegan and Finn (who were in bed by halftime) woke up this morning with smiles though Finn was “coldies” and didn’t want to get out from under his covers. Neither one asked how Tom Brady did or who won the game. Did they care? If you asked them about last night, they wouldn’t say we watched football. They’d say we had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa AND Nana and Papa and got to eat in the living room. That was the really big deal. Football games come and go. A whole night with just their four grandparents (and their mommy and daddy) is rare. Quite simply, it was a great night to be them. It was a special treat. And they thought the window with its cracked pane and broken glass looked kind of cool and interesting this morning when I showed them what happened. They were all smiles.

Boy, have I got a lot to learn from them. I’ve said it before but it doesn’t hurt to repeat: our family may not be wealthy, but we are filthy rich in love and that’s all that counts.