The Magic of Ordinary Days

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Life has a sneaky way of convincing us that the best moments are the big ones: graduations, birthdays, vacations, and winning hockey tournaments (preferably by a landslide). And sure, those are great. But I’m here to let you in on a little secret: the real magic is hiding in plain sight, wrapped up in the most ordinary of days.

Take our driveway, for instance. To the untrained eye, it’s just a patch of asphalt with questionable cracks and a basketball hoop that leans slightly to the left. To us? It’s Madison Square Garden. It’s a world of buzzer-beaters, driveway dunks, and fierce sibling rivalries. It’s where Jameson pretends to be Steph Curry (and argues when I call him out for double-dribbling). It’s where Addie practices her jump shot and occasionally smacks the ball off my face with laser-like precision. Talent is talent, after all.

Then there’s the basement—part home, part hockey rink. In our house, it’s where the “SHOT” game goes down. If you’re unfamiliar with the rules, don’t worry—so are we. They change depending on the mood, the day, and the number of times Crosby (our Kelpie) decides to intercept the puck. What doesn’t change is the sound of laughter, trash talk, and occasional yelling when someone “definitely wasn’t offsides.”

And let’s not forget those front-yard catches. Throwing a baseball, lacrosse ball, or whatever else we can find isn’t just about practicing hand-eye coordination. It’s about sneaking in conversations, building trust, and discovering that your dad (that’s me) still has a cannon of an arm despite what the kids might say.

The beauty of these moments isn’t just what’s happening—it’s what they mean. They’re not just driveway games or front-yard catches. They’re the threads weaving together our family story. They’re the times we laugh without trying, argue over nothing, and learn how to show up for each other without even realizing it.

And someday, when Jameson and Addie are off creating their own lives and memories, I hope they’ll think back to these ordinary days. I hope they’ll remember the driveway games, the basement shootouts, and Crosby’s relentless puck-chasing. I hope they’ll remember that in the midst of our chaotic, busy lives, these small, simple moments were where the magic truly lived.

So here’s to the ordinary days—the real MVPs of family life. Because if you ask me, there’s nothing “ordinary” about them at all.

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