Super Bowl Sunday has come to an end; and
those of us who are ready for a break from football can hope that we’ll get
that time off – once the championship game post-mortem wraps up in a day or
two. Congratulations to the Denver
Broncos and their fans; and my condolences to the Carolina Panthers and their
loyal supporters. While I didn’t have a
favorite, or really care about the game at all; the majority of spectators at
the Inn were very happy to see Peyton Manning win another Super Bowl
championship.
Since this update should begin with my news
from last night; let’s back up and start with the teen night and sleepover
news.
Michael and I had everything ready to go by
the time Rowen and Tim came over; followed shortly after by Rebecca, Lucas,
Jenny, and Peter. We played video games;
watched a movie; and basically just goofed off until a bit after midnight. Rowen took Tim home with her for a while when
they left; but they weren’t doing a sleepover.
Jenny was definitely planning on keeping Peter with her for the night;
and I’ll guess that she didn’t worry about pretending to fall asleep together
on the sofa. I didn’t pretend to do that
– I simply ran out of steam and crashed not long after Rebecca and Lucas went
up to bed. Michael was nice enough to
stay and cuddle with me; so that was both a great way to end the night and then
start our Sunday.
A Jacob Stone gourmet breakfast was fairly
awesome too, and we had a fun video chat with Jake and Stephanie; but the best
part of my day came after church – when Mom surprised me with the news that we
were having a girls-only shopping day in the city. I wish that all of my favorite girls could
have gone along, but Miranda and Rebecca couldn’t because of the lunch and
Super Bowl buffets they were having at the Inn; and they weren’t the only girls
we had to leave behind today. Rowen and
her mother could come, though, and so could Aunt Leanne, Aunt Grace, Aunt
Deborah, and their daughters; so we had a good turnout from our family. Naomi came with Ehlana while Ethan stayed
home with Dad; but Hannah stayed to work at the Olde Bakery.
We left for the city straight from church;
so we were at our favorite mall by one o’clock.
Shopping until we dropped wasn’t really an option, because the stores at
the mall aren’t open late anyway; but we did shop for several hours; made a
supply stop at Wal-Mart on the way out of town; and grabbed a fast food fix to
go for dinner when we were ready to drive home again. There may have been some birthday gifts
picked out for me while we were shopping, but I’ll pretend that I didn’t try
those clothes on so that I can be surprised tomorrow. ;^)
I am glad that I also got to pick up some
gifts for upcoming birthdays and for Valentine’s Day; and that was one of the
reasons that the Moms wanted to go shopping today too – so that they could get
ready for Valentine’s Day too – whether that was picking up Valentines for
Ethan and Ehlana to give out at the KidZone party or picking out gifts for
their own Valentines.
While we were away, Dad was hosting his
Super Bowl party; and had most of the guys there that were temporarily
girl-free while we were away. The game
didn’t even start until dinnertime, but local man laws require that the Super
Bowl fun must begin hours before the actual start of the game. That can include watching the hours of
pre-game shows on television; football video gaming; or even doing something
really radical like going outside and playing football. Since they did have decent weather, going to
the park for some football was an option this year; and we were told that Ethan
and Aiden were the only guys out on the field today that were willing to
attempt to tackle Lee Landry.
For the record, they didn’t succeed; but it
was apparently funny to watch Lee continue playing with one little boy attached
to each leg. ;^)
The big game was on by the time we got
home, but I only stayed there long enough to drop off my things before heading
over to the Inn. I wasn’t able to help
with the buffet dinner; but I did get there in time to help with the
post-buffet clean-up and the set-up for the snacks and drinks tables that were
self-serve for the rest of the evening.
I mostly wanted to be there the hang out with Michael, and once there
was a lull in the work action; we sat with Rebecca and Lucas while watching both
the game and some football video gaming that was going on in the opposite
corner to where the game was on a big screen television.
While the game had been on the television
in the kitchen too, I really only watched parts of the second-half; and only
listened to the halftime show. The Super
Bowl commercials are a big deal every year too, and some of them were
entertaining, but to be perfectly honest; all I was really thinking about for
the showmanship and advertising of the event was that all of that money could
have done a lot more good had it just been used for nearly anything else. Let’s not go into a rant about that, or how
hypocritical the token charity efforts are compared to the money spent on
everything else to do with the game – including the money spent by everyone
watching the game – including everyone here at home.
Maybe that sounds hypocritical too; but it
really isn’t. If we spend fifty or a
hundred dollars each on dinner and a party for the game, that’s a fraction of
what most people around here spend every year on charity. It’s by far the opposite for a lot of the big
players involved in the Super Bowl. I
wouldn’t have nearly as much of a problem with sporting events like this if
twenty or fifty billion dollars were donated to charity for every billion spent
on the game, advertising, and the rest.
So much for skipping the rant! ;^)
Moving along, after watching the game for a
while and hanging out with some of our friends; Michael and I helped with a
small buffet that went out onto the tables at the start of the fourth quarter;
and then we split the rest of our time between watching the game and helping
out with the work in the kitchen. The
party began to wrap up about twenty minutes after the game ended; but it took
more than an hour before all of the party guests had left for home – and then
we still needed to finish cleaning up and getting the kitchen and dining room
set up for breakfast.
That meant that it was already my birthday
by the time we headed home, and while the good night and happy birthday hugs
and kisses with Michael were fun; we were also both ready to head for bed by
then. Unfortunately for me, I had family
business work that needed to get done once I was changed and in bed; and that
took another hour and a half even with some time phasing – mostly because some
of that work had to be done in ‘real’ time over the internet. I’ve also done my usual email and computer
checks before getting to this update; so it’ll be three o’clock or later by the
time I get to sleep tonight.
We have had an awesome day, though; so I’m
okay with doing all of the work that still needed to get done even if that does
mean not getting much sleep again tonight.
My birthday wake-up call will be coming too
soon, though, and that is pretty much all of the news for today; so, until next
time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
