By now, we all know the Saints are Super Bowl champions. I still have to pause every now and then to process that. We also know that Jonathan is a huge Brett Favre fan. He traveled to Green Bay to see him play and last year we went to New York to watch him play as a Jet. Well, this year was tough, because Favre joined the Vikings in the NFC North and Jonathan had to decide, was he a Favre fan or a Packers fan, he went with Favre and rooted for the Vikings all season. I like Favre, but I am also a Southerner and as such have been taught to root for the Saints. I wouldn’t say they were my team ( I really only have one sports team and that is Alabama ), but I root for them when they are playing and I love football. That said, the NFC championship came down to Brett Farve (daddy) vs the Saints (mama).
Now, Holt and Harper Ann have set bedtimes and I am slightly anal about sticking to a routine. In the winter, especially on school nights Harper Ann is in the bed at 7 and Holt is in bed by 7:30, with one exception, football. During Football season we would let Holt stay up on Sundays and sometimes Mondays to watch the games with us. He and Jonathan would play a little football of their own in the livingroom floor and then cuddle up. Usually Holt would fall asleep and one of us would end up carrying him to bed, but usually Jonathan could calmly watch the game - I hope that Holt will have idealized memories of getting to stay up late and watch football with his dad and getting to have a picnic on a pallet in the living-room instead of having to sit at the table - The night of the NFC championship we four ordered some pizza and got set to face off; even Harper Ann got to stay up a little later than normal. Holt would go back and forth rooting for Brett Favre and then singing "Oh when the saints go marching in." Usually Holt doesn’t make it to the fourth quarter, but this was a showdown he wasn't going to miss. The game was so close, as I’m sure y’all remember, and for a while I thought the Vikings were going to the Super Bowl, then the offensive line decided to go on vacation. Favre was getting massacred and Jonathan was freaking out. At one point I thought I was going to have to sacrifice myself for our tv as Jonathan threw insults and anything not tied down around the room. After Favre threw the final interception, Jonathan lay prostrate on the picnic pallet and Holt looked up at me with great sincerity and asked, “Mama, why is daddy crying?” I tried my best to explain what idiocy a love of sports and a particular player/team can cull out of a person, but he’s still a little young for that. I on the other-hand felt Jonathan’s pain; I know what it is like to have your heartbroken by a group of lineman or a defense that can’t cover a spread offense. So, as Holt joined in the chorus of revelers on TV singing Oh when the saints go marching in, I turned the TV off and led him to his room to read a bedtime story and say our prayers. As I dimmed the lights Jonathan was still facedown in the blankets mumbling something into the folds. I pulled his copy of Casey at the Bat off the shelf to see if Ernest Thayer could do a better job than I explaining loss to a 3 year old little boy. “The outlook wasn’t brilliant ...”
Before the fallout
Even Harper Ann was excited
Do you see her eying my pizza? What a little pudge
I had to take her away from him to keep Jonathan from throwing her across the room
This was taken getting ready for our annual Super Bowl party. She was definitely in the spirit.
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