This past week, I had four of James’s best buddies over for dinner. I asked them what they wanted to dinner and steak was unanimously suggested in honor of James. It was his favorite right before boot (that’s what they call bootcamp.) A huge salad was poked at like a dead animal and turned this way and that before being passed over. A hefty pile of homemade Texas Roadhouse dinner rolls was swiftly inhaled. Of course, Dr. Pepper featured prominently. What a great evening we had!

After dinner we read some of James’s letters and then I pulled out writing paper and we set to writing one for James. Remember Madlibs? Well, we adapted that somewhat (AITO – oorah!) Each person wrote a word or two before passing it to the person on their left to write any old goofy word they wanted.  It made for marvelous hullabaloo for the next hour or so. The guys were so kind as to write a personal letter in addition to the group letter. I don’t imagine they’d recently written a letter. We even discussed what stamps were and what part of the address went where on the envelope. Great fun!

Our magnum opus was posing for a group photo. James unfailingly ruins group photos. He closes his eyes or crosses them or who knows what else. It gave us great pleasure to pose for a goofy photo and can see James getting a full chuckle out of it. We had a take a boring smiling one for good measure too.

Lessons:

• If you have an idea, jump on it.
• If there’s resistance or it’s not coming along, don’t give up.
• Memorialize every occasion. Who knows which will be your last? If nothing else, you’ll have great reminders decades down the road.
• Look up an old friend. Spend some time reminiscing.
• Share a memory of a great experience you had in the past.