Now, somewhere I have a picture of my father-in-law in the exact same stance....


Anywoo. Nathan's pic is from his school Christmas program on Monday. Monday when it was 80 degrees in Georgia!!! My mother sends me pictures of snow in Dallas, and we're having a heat wave. But I digress.

Nathan's teacher had sent home a notice saying that the kids were to dress in their party best, and specifically mentioned dress slacks, button down shirt, and a tie. A tie? Are you kidding me? Eric doesn't wear a tie, I'm certainly not making Nathan wear one. Turns out he's outgrown his 2 pairs of nice pants, so I went to buy him a new pair on Sunday, plus a nice shirt. Didn't take the kid with me. And didn't make him try them on when I got home. Instead, waited until Monday morning to force him to wear them. Big mistake. Nathan has some quirk in his system that won't allow him to wear clothing that's too big. He had an absolute meltdown with me making him wear long pants that were too big. I gave in because he was almost too hysterical to be functional at school.

But he made it to school on time and all was right with the world. Eric and I both went to his program. I took along the old video recorder we've got and took about 5 minutes of video before the battery died. I've been trying to figure out how to get it onto the computer (not a digital camcorder). Not having much luck. Which is a shame, because the Nathan's Eric tendencies are really evident - on the back row, last one in line, faking interest in what the announcer is saying, swaying to while everyone else is swaying fro. He was really enjoying himself when they were actually singing. Rudolph had hand motions and he got to play a triangle for Jingle Bells. Still have to record him singing the dreidel song in the shower. At the top of his lungs. 20 times through.

Tuesday night was the cub scout banquet. Nathan's only been to 2 meetings, and these boys are all in a different grade, so he doesn't know any of them. But he seemed to enjoy himself. Again, in the group picture, hiding in the back. At one point in the shindig, the pack master had the two new scouts and their families come up to the front to be welcomed. Nathan and I stood up there. And where was Eric? Wandering the hallways, reading the plaques and posters. He spent more of the evening outside the room than in. Now, to be fair, it was crowded and noisy and stuffy, but still. I felt like I had married my father-in-law.

Eric's got the post Christmas concert tonight. I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on him. He's got to play a big band arrangement of Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer that plays the tune in 5 or 6 styles - swing, jazz, rock, etc. Serves the scrooge right. Tee-hee!

Poor guy had to sit through a 2-1/2 hour training meeting yesterday with the E7s and up. now, I think Eric is a terrific soldier and NCO. He's got the temperament to deal with people and the stresses of the job. He's actually pretty good on stuff like organization and procedures (even though I can't get him to pick up his dirty socks). But no way, no how does he have the temperament to sit through a 2-1/2 hour staff meeting unless he were required to. And with a deployment on the horizon, these meetings are just going to be longer and more often.

He did make me laugh on Friday. As he left for work, he said that it would probably be a pretty full day with rehearsals, a couple of troop arrivals and some training task with one of his subordinates. Twenty minutes he walks back in the door. Everything had been cancelled or pushed back except for the training task. He calls the soldier and says, "The only thing standing between me and a three day weekend is you." Then basically tells the kid to call him as soon as he's ready for Eric to meet him. I'm thinking, 'dang that's pulling your rank', but I didn't say anything to him. When he got back from meeting with the guy I asked him how it went. "well, the guy kept apologizing to me for messing up my three day." gee, you think? I told him my impression of the phone call. And he said, "Oops! I didn't mean it that way. That's pretty harsh." He's still getting used to the awesome unbridled power of the E7.