Father-Daughter Dance

We like to hype things up in my family, and we start early. We talked up the premiere of the Naked Brothers Band movie for over a month. We plan summer birthday parties in February, and we've already begun talking about all the fun we're going to have next Christmas. So when the invitation arrived for our church's Father-Daughter Dance, we got on that right away: What will Grace wear? What will Daddy wear? Why wasn't Johnny invited? What will Johnny and Mommy do during the Father-Daugther Dance? How will Grace and Daddy dance?

To cover the last question, we've all been practicing in the evenings to a varied soundtrack of dance hits. Most of my friends know I'm not very confident on the dance floor. At least in front of other people. At home in my living room? A completely different story. David too. He's a self-proclaimed 'comical dancer,' and once you've see him in action, you'll want him at every wedding reception you'll ever attend for the rest of your life. Watching Grace and Johnny is the best, though. Johnny has latino blood in him, and, although slightly more stiff, Grace does a pretty good job keeping up with his shakes and shimmies. Their latest dance trick is to circle their hips around in exaggerated form, guaranteeing laughs and hands-over-mouths from all who watch them, quickening their pace as the laughing crescendos. We prepared Grace and David as best we could, hoped for the best, and waited for February 10 to arrive.

Yesterday arrived, and if you could have bottled up the excitement in the air all day, especially in the hour leading up to our departure, you could have powered a private plane all the way to California and back (without refueling).

Grace looked beautiful. She wore a black velvet off-the-rack stunner with pale pink fluff at the collar and cuffs. A pair of white "tipes," classic black patent leather Mary Janes with cut-out hearts at the toes, and a sparkly rhinestone hair clip in her newly cut bob rounded out her look.
David charmed in his stylish mix of layers, patterns, and textures, and pulled off with aplomb the effect of a loving-but- highly-fashionable dad.

Johnny and I dropped the pair off and peeked in the Fellowship Hall that had been transformed into a Valentine's wonderland replete with twinkle lights, red and pink heart garland, and an abundant buffet table filled with sugary goodies. After grabbing an iced, sprinkled cookie, Johnny and I bode farewell and began our date at Chik-Fil-A and the Children's Store at University Mall. An hour and fifteen minutes later we returned to a very tired Grace and a tell-all David, both reporting that the Macarena, Electric Slide, and YMCA dances were all difficult to get the hang of. The girls made beaded bracelets with their daddies, the couples got their photos taken in front of the twinkle-light tree, and each girl was given a long-stemmed red rose at the end of the night.

It was really, really sweet to see all of the girls and their fathers dressed up and excited about spending the evening together. And, just so you know, as much as we hype things ahead of time, we do the same after the fact. We'll be talking about Grace's and Daddy's first ever Father-Daughter Dance for a long, long time.