All She Wants For Christmas

My nine year old, Arianna, was VERY excited to hand over her Christmas list this year. The list had been edited, scribbled on, thought through, folded and refolded. The requests were numbered and at the top she had put "iPhone".
"Arianna honey," I said. "For real babes. You can't get an iPhone. You're nine and me and your Dad don't even have an iPhone."
"I don't want it for the phone part," she explained. "I want it for the cool apps."
"Probably not gonna happen," I said as my eyes drifted up and down her wish list.
There was a Nancy Drew PC game, a game for the Wii, she wanted a Razor Scooter. I began to wonder if she truly understood the value of things. Had me and Rob fought so hard to give our kids everything that they somehow didn't realize some things were more valuable than others? Did she understand that one silly Wii game cost a few hours of solid work out of us? And then my eyes caught Number Seven on her list.
A plane ticket for Piper. Piper was the golden hair beauty two doors down in our old neighborhood in New York. They went to the same school and had countless sleep overs. They traded friendship bracelets, painted each other's nails and giggled through High School Musical (1,2 and 3).
Arianna made no secret of her despair in leaving her behind when we moved last month.
"Good grief Ari," I said, ready to give her a lesson in economics. "Do you think we're made of money? A plane ticket? Do you know how much that would cost? If we got Piper a plane ticket, that would be all you got...we wouldn't be able to afford another thing on the list. These things are expensive. Do you understand?"
"Okay," she said solemnly.
"Okay what?" I asked. I wanted to hear her say it - I wanted to know that she got the lesson - that money doesn't grow on trees and hard earned cash is...well, hard earned.
"Okay," she said. "She's all I want. Use all my Christmas money on her ticket. Can we call her mom when we get home?"
"Oh gosh," I thought to myself. "She's not kidding."
As I fought to explain that Piper was probably equally wanted by her parents on Christmas Day, it dawned on me that Arianna knows the meaning of true value after all. Money doesn't grow on trees, and neither do best friends.

Fair Weather Fan

I have been buried in boxes as of late and still don't quite know where my can opener is but hey, always time to write. Because I can't find my can opener (and because I hate cooking) we've been eating out a lot in our new home, Baton Rouge.
In my whole life, I've never been anywhere that prides itself in cooking great food more than Louisiana. Spices are taken very seriously. Crawfish and shrimp are taken very seriously. Football is taken very seriously. I've also never lived in a place with a college team and an NFL team. Okay, there were the Giants but we were so far from them, it was hard to care. But here...oh...here...it didn't take me long to find out the Saints were undefeated and LSU was - well - EVERYTHING. There are LSU car tags, bumper stickers, shirts, shoes, key chains, mugs - even saw an LSU blowup snowman. People paint themselves purple and make no secret of their obsession. Coffee shops are full of LSU students with laptops and LSU sweatshirts. It was fun to admire them from afar but suddenly me, and my family, found ourselves eating at one of a million places that was playing the LSU game on every TV screen available. Not little screens. Gi-normous ones. Four gi-normous ones put together to make ONE BIG GINORMOUS screen. We had no choice. So over Thai wraps we watched and our conversation was drowned out by the crowd that surrounded us as LSU went to the wire and then to overtime...it came down to a field goal. I was enraptured by the whole ritual. The outbursts from the LSU clad men, women and children that watched with baited breath was fascinating. The other team didn't make the field goal and LSU won - I clapped, everyone clapped and cheered, waitresses wiped their eyes, grown men blotted their foreheads...it was as if someone had snatched their own children from the jaws of death. I looked around. Took in the moment and turned to my husband.
"I think I'm an LSU fan. And I think I'll be a Saints fan too."
"What?" He seemed shocked and a little miffed.
"Why not? They win all the time and we've never lived in a place that had winning football teams like this. It will be fun to root for someone who doesn't disappoint."
"You can't just pick a team and be a fan," my husband explained. "You have to grow up with them and get their toys for Christmas when you're a kid, you have to pay your dues...besides, we're Michigan fans."
"Hmm. I didn't know there were rules to becoming a football fan."
"Well yeah," he continued. "I've always been a Michigan fan. You just can't quit a team because you moved."
"Well, I never lived in Michigan or really cared before. I think I care now. And I think I care about LSU. And the Saints."
He rolled his eyes.
"Well, don't be a fair weather fan," he tells me."It's all fun while they're winning but if a season comes when they don't do so great, I don't want you to start peeling off LSU stickers and rooting for someone else."
We then had a moment of silence for the University of Michigan's not-so-great season.
"Will you at least root for LSU if they play Michigan one day?"
My husband hung his head.
"You don't get it do you? It's like you want me to turn against my mother. That's how much you have to love your team."
Fascinating. There are rules to fandom. I'm eager to get started. I already know all about Drew Brees and I plan on taking my kids to see Mike the Tiger (LSU's mascot) first chance I get...cause it's right up the road! I even found out what "Who 'Dat" meant and can tell you the original origin. Soon I'll be able to chant it with a thousand other fans because I'm surfing ebay for tickets.
I hope they win...
In the meantime we've been developing a website for Louisiana Church of God State Offices. My husband is the director of the Youth and Christian Education Department.
"We should do a cool YCE logo," he suggested.
I've got just the thing. ;)