Wrapping up 2014 and realized that it’s been a very long time since my last post, and I blame it all on the first year with my son!

Recently my dad retired from 57 years in the aviation industry.  After receiving awards from Congress and being showered with praise from his colleagues, I was most touched by his farewell speeches.  He’s not a fisherman of compliments and never brags, though he has the life resume to do so.  It was a comment he made that really made me understand the sacrifices he made as a father and husband to better the lives of the people he cared for most.  In not so many words, he said that everything he did, he did for his family.

We moved often when I was a kid.  At the time I didn’t understand why and thought that most families must move often, since we did.  I now understand why.  After meeting my wife and her then 10 year old daughter, I became a family man.  I no longer could make decision without thinking of how they would affect other people, like my new family.

When I first met my step daughter, I thought “hey, this dad thing is kind of cool.”  I experienced what it was like for someone to look to you, ask you, and often mimic you about making decisions, how to act, what to say, what was cool, definitely what wasn’t cool (I think I may have embarrassed her a time or two), and generally how to grow up.  Little does she know that she taught me a lot about being a father, which came in very handy this year when my first son was born.

I was never really big on Christmas, not for any particular reason, but Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday of the year.  The last few years that sentiment changed and that’s all credited to my wife and my step daughter.  This year my sentiment changed and exploded!  I mean, come on, I’m watching Christmas specials on LifeTime Network, cooking dinners with Christmas music on (and I mean the cheesy xmas songs), putting up xmas lights in the pouring rain at night, having gingerbread house competitions, and wondering if I never gave Santa the chance he deserves.

Christmas, like love, isn’t about what it does for you but rather what you do for others.  I realized that my step daughter, and now my son, opened up my jolly ol’ St. Nick heart and now and forever Christmas will be the most wonderful time of the year.  So my fellow first time dads, or anyone else out there, it’s ok to feel sappy.  Trust me, it’s only just begun!