a little typo my son discovered we actually met a decade earlier in '88.

I'd like to say that on Father's day morning I'd planned a perfect gift, that involved the enthusiastic participation of all three children. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Instead I came downstairs with Celia in search of coffee and a plan. Time was on our side as it would take hours for the men in our house to wake up.

After enjoying coffee and sufficiently awaking to consciousness I grabbed some white paper off the printer, a pencil, ball point pen, Crayola markers and a stapler. Celia is a willing accomplice in any card making activity. I folded two sheets of paper in half ripped them and then folded them again to make a miniature book. With pencil I sketched out my cartoon booklet. My rough idea was to make a quick cartoon story of our lives. I slimmed myself into a vixen for the falling in love page, and then devoted the subsequent three pages to each of our children. I showed them all as chubby babies holding their favorite baby toys. The final pages featured Jon as 'Super Hero Dad'. I added an ending note from our dog Maizy and credited 'Kitchen Table Publishing' on the back cover.

Celia and I packed our cards into an envelope and proceeded to make 'crispy' Belgium waffles and maple sausages. We made a room service delivery and Jon enjoyed his feast while watching our favorite CBS Sunday morning program. When he opened the card his eyes welled up and while paging through the book it was hard to tell whether he was laughing or crying (some of my stick figures were atrocious).

There's no way I would have been able to find a card that would be as touching as the silly one I made. I know it'll be added to the stack of handmade cards that we shared over our 22 years together. I still treasure the gorgeous cards Jon made me when we began dating.