go pats!

We are Patriot fans. That goes without saying, since Chris was born in Boston and grew up in New England. Even though they lived about two and a half hours away from Foxboro, Massachusetts, where the Pats play (since the stadium’s in the middle of nowhere), Chris and his brother were able to go to a bunch of games by themselves during their high school years. By some fluke, the neighbor across the street was a Frenchman and the company he worked for gave him season’s tickets. Except-- he didn’t care about American football or didn’t want to make the long trek to the games, in addition to the fact that, in those years, the Patriots were only good enough to get your hopes up. 

Anyway-- Charlie wants to be the next Tom Brady and hopes to play quarterback for his team this coming season and Parker thinks the Gronk is a beast and aspires to be one too. 

My two oldest boys like to harass anyone who dislikes the Patriots, and here in Southern California, that’s a lot of people. They talk smack to the brothers in the church who are Raiders and Niners fans, to their teammates who like anyone but the Patriots and to their own coaches. The other day, after losing his basketball game, Parker walked up to his head football coach, who happened to be watching the game, that they lost because his shirt was so horrible-- he was wearing San Francisco 49ers shirt. The coach was not amused.  

Before I go any further however, I do have to mention that I disagree with watching NFL football games on TV. Why? Because of the vast number of completely ungodly commercials glorifying sex and alcohol and because of the possible inappropriate cheerleader screen shots. I hardly want my boys watching a Dallas Cowboy’s game getting flashes of the Cowboy cheerleaders. That doesn’t glorify God. Or help my kids in their Christian walk. If you disagree with me that’s ok . But that’s how I choose to raise my kids and conduct our home. Hubby agrees. I would always rather err on the side of being safe and I think God honors that. 

Anyhow, since we don’t have cable tv, antennas or internet live streaming, I like to call out Patriot scoring updates to the family. When the game’s over, we’ve been known to all squish onto the couch or around the table to watch the game highlights. It’s a real hoot because even River and Jasper have a fit if they can’t see. I think they love football more than all of us combined. 

And in Saturday’s mail, we received a package from Papou (Chris’ dad) that contained some inserts from the Boston Globe with a whole section dedicated to the Patriot’s win over the Ravens. The kids took it out back and absorbed it. That’s when I told Chris that even though we will be following the Super Bowl via my cell phone (we’ll be at church during much of the game!) and googling updates, we should still buy some football  party paraphenalia and have our own little family Super Bowl party. We can  BBQ after Sunday morning church followed up with an all-you-can-eat dessert bar. He liked the idea. 

I love making memories like that for the kids. Go Pats!