Cappy's Corner

A couple of years ago, I decided to change up birthday gifts for my grandchildren. I got tired of the card that gets tossed and the money that really doesn't mean much, or gifts that are not used. What I decided to do is each time a birthday came along for my grandchildren, I would give them a day with me. More like a gift for me, but it is a chance for us to get to know each other without all that electronic stuff. I get to find out about who they are, in turn I get to tell them amazing stories of the old days.

Our day usually ends up as a weekend, but that works for me too. This past weekend was Jazzy's birthday weekend, we started with the movies, a great time there. Then Jazz decides she would like manicure, pedicure time. I was all for that since it has been months since I had that treat. Jazz then decides that we should hang around the house and watch movies, so I opened the sofa bed, per her instructions and we laid around watching some great movies. It was almost time for dinner and my beautiful granddaughter wanted to have her cousin join us for dinner. So down to Homestead we went to capture another grandchild, Max, who is suppose to assist me the next day in the yard anyway.

We arrive at the restaurant and, of course, there is a wait of 25 minutes. I suggested we walk outside with our electronic buzzer and wait for our table. Max looked at me and said "What are we going to do for 25 minutes", I replied, "Talk". I began the conversation and it seemed like only 5 minutes had passed and our table was ready. Dining with the grand's is always an opportunity to embarrass them, I like to talk with our server, I guess we joked so much that he forgot a lot of things. In the end we had an amazing dinner with great conversation. It surprises me how young people see the world and wonder about the opportunities life has to offer.  My grandchildren are not the entitled type so they actually think about important things, like the current school system. They were both homeschooled and are finding their first year back to the public school system a bit of a bore. They told me that it is hard to socialize with some of the kids because and I am quoting "The kids my age are stupid". The grandkids said that the other kids in their grade level still don't know how to read in high school and we have to pay the price with ridiculous homework that we have already mastered. They both agree it is a waste of their time. It is nice to see that they can recognize this and more importantly they want to be challenged. The school they attend is a Charter School, which one would think should be better. Enough of the rambling, that's a whole new subject.

After a great dinner we headed home and all plopped down on the sofa bed watching movies. The next morning I couldn't get anyone up till noon. Good to see how relaxed they are, I remember sleeping late on weekends. Didn't get any yard work done, but we had a great day full of fun and conversation. My son came by later to pick up the kids and we had a pizza party. Just seems like these spontaneous moments are the best of all. I can't wait for the next birthday celebration. Is there a point to this story or a moral we can take away. Yes there is, anything can be replaced except these wonderful people we call family. I am so lucky!