My Dad Is Crazy.

Anybody who knows my Dad knows he is crazy. But in the best ways possible.

He doesn't march to the beat of his own drum, he boogies ... in tap shoes....with jazz hands.

His life is so wonderfully, marvelously full of freedom that nothing inhibits his joy, his ideas, his creativity, or his fun.

This weekend, he drilled a hole in a wooden end table and shoved the Christmas tree right down into it. He had the little kids helping him make pancakes and told Ethan to stand on the counter since there wasn't enough room for him in the kitchen. Shortly thereafter, he made him a folding ledge/chair that mounts to the wall of the kitchen, supported by a cutting board, as a "lifeguard chair" for the on-counter kitchen observer. Of course, all the kids thought this was magnificent.

He is like a cowboy that shoots from the hip - in everything, but ESPECIALLY home construction. Drill twice, measure never. Need a doorstop? Screw a 2x4 into the carpet. Done.

This out of the box thinking is one of the completely magical things about my Dad. It's because he is SOOOOOO free! He doesn't care if he drills screws through the new carpet. The door needs a stop! And the end table was free, and is always covered by books, so why WOULDN'T the Christmas tree get its own dedicated hole?

And this also, perhaps, explains why it is a sacred family tradition to have a cheese grater on top of the Christmas tree. 12 years ago, Christmas 2000, was our first Christmas with just my Dad, Christi and me. We had absolutely nothing. Dad sent Christi and me to the store to buy everything to decorate for Christmas - ribbons, ornaments, lights etc.... We came back to decorate the tree and realized we had forgotten something for the top. Dad, who at that time had a very high fever and is delirious when he is sick, was swooning on the sofa, full of pain meds with a cool rag on his head. He suggested we put a cheese grater on top - it was shiny and had pretty holes for the lights to shine through. And years later, the tradition has stuck! Some of us still do the cheese grater on top. Ry and I now have a sweet little cheese grater ornament to remind us, and a pretty star for the top.

But there is something about his irreverent creativity and generative free spirit that just gets things done, and makes EVERYONE laugh in the process.

I love my Dad. And chances are, if you know him, you do too.

Shout-out to the gene pool.