Saturday Evening was ‘Meet the Parents,’ FOR REAL!

Our daughter Michelle had planned this a couple weeks out. Marie-Anne and I would come out to her boyfriend, Patrick's, house in Readfield. His parents, Tom and Elizabeth would be there and we'd have dinner. It would be great! That's what plan was.

What was going through my mind: We're going to get there and they're going to make a big announcement about a fall wedding and we need to get to planning it now!

Well, that's what I half expected. Not that it would be a bad thing. Just a part of life I haven't fully embraced yet. I mean, it's my little girl.

Because I was preparing myself for that, I think I would have been in a better place to accept it without going all crybaby. Plus, Patrick was cooking roast beef with all the fixin's. I planned to be too full to cry, anyway, which I was.

Oh, and on the way, we stopped at Fielder's Choice in Manchester to get a couple quarts of ice cream. After eating that, you could have told me anything and I would have been like, "whatever."

Well, Tom and Elizabeth, who had driven from their home in Woodstock, were charming. We had a nice visit, a great meal and NO BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! Perfect.

If and when that day comes, I'll probably be blindsided. Hopefully, though, they both read this and realize that the key to making a big announcement is to feed the old man a fabulous meal of beef and Fielder's Choice ice cream, first.