I went to the Father Daughter Ball with my two eldest princesses tonight.
“Hurry, hurry! It’s time to go!” My princesses were nearly ready to go, and I’d just walked in the door from work. A quick application of the clippers and a razor, and eating in between, and I was set to go. Michelle headed out to help the photography team at the ball, and I put on a tie for the second time in the last several weeks – breaking what was formerly a bi-annual tradition. Then it was time, and we headed off to the ball.
In spite of the fact that we arrived at about 6:05 p.m., only 5 minutes after the doors opened the line, was already quite long. Each party was introduced, quite slowly and deliberately (and quite loudly), by an announcer to the rest of the guests. As you might imagine this took quite a while. By the time everyone was announced it was nearly 7:00!
The program got underway a little late due to the time it took to get everyone in and give them a chance to sample the hors d’Oeuvres and desserts. The speaker was very good, encouraging and affirming daughters of every age, and exhorting them to honor and respect their dads. She also gave all of the fathers a unique glimpse of what their girls think of them, and stressed the importance of not only loving our daughters well, but also their mothers. Her reasoning? How we treat the mother of our daughters, whether we are still married to them or not, is an example to our daughters of how men treat women. Mercedes, perceptive creature that she is, made sure that I heard that last part. Whether Michelle and I think our relationship is solid or not, it should give us pause to think about how our daughters perceive it.
After the program we went and had our picture taken together. By now the blood sugar level had kicked back up and it was a mite difficult to keep them still while waiting in line. It helped that Mom was there; these girls definitely love their mama, especially Regan. When it came time to sit in front of the camera, though, they were perfect posable little angels. They listened to every word the photographer’s assistant said and it was all over in a minute and a half.
After the photo op we went out to the dance floor. I was expecting them to ask me to dance with them, but they immediately found their friends instead. I was called upon to sooth Regan’s feelings once, and I got to do a slow dance with Mercedes, but other than that I was just standing around waiting for something to happen.
By the time we left it was after 9:00 p.m. and all of us were pretty tuckered out. We had a nice quiet drive home and got everyone to bed post haste. Mom got home just as the girls were getting tucked in for the night. “Did you have fun? Would you go again next year?” she asked.
The reply was instantaneous. “Yeah!!”
I’m so lucky to be a dad to these little princesses.