My robes were a pastel bedspread covered in butterflies and flowers.  Her gown was the butterfly quilt she’s had since she was born.  She did have her finest shoes on – they just didn’t match.  And, we danced to the sounds of children’s songs in German (a gift from some dear friends of ours in Braunfels, Germany).  Truth be told, it was just as magical to me in the real world as the way she envisioned it (like the above) in her mind.  It was not the only example of my important “to-dos” today.

Along with mass, Sunday for my family usually includes some amount of laundry and a bit if tidying up to get things ready for the week.  Today, we also threw in a trip to Souper Salad for some dinner and a visit from the cable installer to fix and issue and put in a new jack.  All in all, nothing unusual.  Anyone would be proud of crossing those items off their list.  I, however, feel even better about the following things I did today:

1. I drove to the grocery store.  There was some baking to do and we needed fresh ingredients.  We had to go buy them.  So, we drove there in our brown leather sofa-car.  I’m pretty sure I was in a 5 point child safety seat.
2. I baked cakes  – three of them actually.  They were made from fresh ingredients (see #1) and baked to perfection in the finest LifeStlye oven money can by.  If memory serves me correctly, they had at least 8 colors of icing.  That also contained a special touch- one I never realized would make so much difference in baked goods – plastic grapes.  The reason we had to bake three was my son kept eating them before we could put candles on them and sing happy birthday for the party my daughter was trying to throw.
3. I celebrated a birthday.  Oh, it was grand.  There was a table full of fine china (Little Pony tea sets and most of our plastic ware).  We had a glorious cake (see #2).  We sang and blew out candles with all the gusto we could muster.
4. I got tucked in by my parents.  My “dad” even returned the favor of laying down with me for a few minutes before I fell asleep – complete with a quick check of his blackberry that he pulled out of his back pocket before laying down.  (It’s funny how kids can let you know habits you have, huh )  They got me a drink of water when I called out for it “in the middle of the night” and I even got to jump in their bed and wake them up in the “morning”.  (good thing I didn’t jump too hard because they were sleeping on the concrete floor of the sun room)
5. Tonight, I hid from monsters.  They were big and scary ones.  Thankfully, they are unable to see anyone under my wife’s quilt.  It’s a miracle of science, really.  I don’t know how we would survive without it’s magical properties.  It was a close call tonight, but we avoided being eaten by the beasties.
6. I had breakfast at about 9:00pm.  It was very good.  I’m not quite sure what all I ate (I wasn’t told), but I know there was some orange juice.  I had a plate, a bowl and a tea cup full of goodies and they were all delicious.
7. I helped was and dry the dishes.  That Step 2 kitchen has a marvelous sink!  We were able to knock out all those pesky breakfast dishes, get them dried and put up in no time
8. I attended two dance parties (the first one was actual somewhere before hiding from the monsters if this where all chronological).  both were fantastic.  I haven’t had a better time dancing (with the notable exception of my first dance with my wife at our reception).

Along with all this amazing stuff, I did get a good board game in with my son and we knocked a couple electives off the list in his Tiger Cub book.  Yesterday, we had a great family outing in downtown San Antonio, but that, I think, is a whole different discussion.  For now, I’ll sip this nightcap I have, look at the pile of mail and papers I should sort through, ignore the final 10% of my taxes I could be knocking out and think about my busy day.  It was great!  Yeah, I actually did get a few loads of laundry clean, the dishes out of the sink and took out the trash today, but that didn’t keep me from getting some of the REALLY important stuff crossed of my list!