Roots

Went down tonight to the Streets of Southglen to watch the Christmas tree lighting and it was really nice. There was some kind of Figure Skating exhibition, Arapahoe HS band members were playing Christmas tunes (with the obligatory open case), Santa arrived, it was just a real nice hometown feel. Additionally, we called the grand parents, and they came down to spend some time with the kids, and I love that we got to enjoy that as a family. As normally happens when we go down to the Streets, we bumped into some of the folks that we know, neighbors, school families, scouting families, whomever, and D even got to run with his pack of friends from school, and while it's hard to truly cool at 10, these quys came close, following some girls, meeting up with other friends, etc. Even Amberly managed to have some hello moments that were all about kids she knew. Coming home and getting ready for bed, I was feeling really happy that the family was establishing roots.

Roots are something new to me, and something that I always wanted for may kids. See when I was growing up, we were a military family. Military families move every couple of years, and the longest we ever stayed in one spot was about 3 years. As most of my friends were also from military families, and they weren't neccessarily on the same time schedule of assignement, the longest that I got to hang with them was about a year to a year and a half. By the time I was 15, I had lived in 10 different homes. Other than the fact that my Gramma lived in the same house that my Dad was raised in, I had no concept of roots. But roots are good, they offer things that shouldn't be taken for granted, a sense of where you come from, a source of continuity, and place to remember fondly. If you are fortuante enough to have multiple generations within the same geographic location, you get shared experiences. For example, my two youngest children go to the same school my wife went as a kid, so they share the experience of being students there and my wife shares the experience of being a parent there, just like her folks were. These shared experiences create some pretty strong bonds, and that helps holds a family together through the years. So I am extremely grateful to finally have roots. I'll be writing more soon. Blessings.