Superbowl Sunday Breakdown

Free weekends around here are like pure gold. I was elated to look at my calendar last week and see what was shaping up to be a wide open weekend.

I had signed up to bring dinner to my brother and his wife on Friday and had to take Dawson out on a long run Saturday morning but after that there was nothing. To tell the truth, I don't make announcements like that for fear someone will pencil something in for me. However, basketball season ended earlier in the week and that alone made me feel like a free woman.

Saturday turned out very nicely with a frigid 11 mile run followed by brunch with friends. The rest of the day offered nice chunks of time for some household projects along with some fun family time (we're currently on a Rocky kick and the boys are loving every single, black-eyed moment).

It took a bit longer than I had planned to get one chore finished so I got to bed much later than I had hoped, but it didn't bother me because I knew that I had absolutely nothing (other than mass of course) planned the next day and I was comforted by the thought of lounging around in pajamas and watching movies.

Then the phone rang...and, gulp, Nelson answered. "Sure!" I heard him offer. "You can bring her over to watch it. We'll probably invite a crowd."

Funny, he didn't see me jumping up and down, waving my hands frantically and shaking my head.

You see, I take the whole Sunday is a day of rest thing very seriously. Sunday is for church, family brunch, movies, leftovers and sometimes even a nap. I hold my Sundays sacred and actually cringe when I get invited to Sunday events. It's not that I don't like to do things; I just don't want to have to do them on a Sunday.

That little phone call turned into a massive invitation sent out Sunday while we were at our favorite coffee shop. "So I'm inviting some people over for the game," he said, bracing me for impact.

I took a deep breath and thought, you know, it's just a bunch of guys. I'll throw together some chili, we can tell them to bring a snack and some beer and then I can sit and watch the game.

That was all fine...except my husband thinks big. So he didn't just invite guys, he invited families and all their children. This meant I spent my free Sunday cleaning my house, making food and getting set up for a party I didn’t prepare for.

I like to throw parties. I like to have lots of people over. I'm not so good at spur of the moment parties for 30 on the one day of the week I strive to do a whole lot of nothing.

However, I love my husband and wanted to placate his edginess over the fact that this, "is the LAST game of the season and then there is a VERY LONG hiatus until football starts again."

Cue the violins.

We did it and it turned out that even though I couldn't have cared less who won the game, I watched the whole thing because my goodness at least they made it interesting. And, other than the whole prep and cleaning, I actually enjoyed the event itself because most of the people were there to watch the game anyway - that and I won 10 bucks in our betting pool.

In the end, I guess the lesson here is that life often does not go the way you plan. But sometimes, that's okay because what you plan is often not as fun as what occurs when you just let life happen.