George's birthday celebration yesterday

When I was a kid, mom always made cherry pies for George Washington's birthday - with little hatchets cut out of the extra pieces of crust, baked on top.

So, of course I carried on that tradition -- but yesterday, our youngest took it all to a new level.

In honor of President's Day, she decreed that we each would choose a president and give a speech about him at dinner. In addition, we would have to be addressed all day by that president's name instead of our given first names.

Therefore, we went around yesterday saying "George", "Abe", "Teddy", "Ronald" (a.k.a "The Gipper" or "Dutch"), "Millard", and "Rutherford". The organizer of the day became quite annoyed when anyone slipped and referred to someone by their baptismal name, marking it down with a tick mark. (I slipped up a lot.... )

At dinner, we heard the speeches, were given prizes (those who messed up the least on the name changes were given special awards), and, for dessert, had pie.

My fellow Americans, it was a delightful evening!