Traditions Both Old And New

or Where To Watch The Game



The facebook invite that started it all

Last year, my honey and I met for the first time at a football party on the first day of the 2011-2012 NFL season.  We met, we talked, and we were both interested in each other.  As a result, we both spent a lot of the rest of football season watching football together on the same friends' couch getting to know each other.  You could say that was an early tradition for us.

Now, fast forward seven months through the hockey and baseball seasons and a new football season has started.  Much to our dismay, the friends' house where we met and attended football parties last year isn't available to us, but that is a story for a different blog and one I'll probably never write.  So, my honey and I have to start creating our own Sunday football traditions from scratch.  Sounds easy, right?  Houston, we have a problem!



What more could you want on a Sunday afternoon?

Prior to our football party attendance, I always watched Sunday football at my mom's house.  Ever since I went away to college and came home on weekends, my mom has had a big Sunday dinner ready to eat during the one o'clock game.  We'd all sit at the kitchen table (many of us with a very convenient view of the television in the connected living room), eat and talk, then we'd all adjourn to the living room to watch the day's football games.  This was my football tradition.

My honey, on the other hand, delights in watching his Sunday football on an HDTV.  Doesn't matter whose house (his home, his parents' home, friend's homes), it just matters that the TV is large and the screen is HD.  So, you'd think he wouldn't care if we continued my tradition of watching the game at my mom's house, right?  Wrong! 



You see, my mom has a big screen TV in her living room and it's even an HDTV, but she stubbornly refuses to pay more for the HD programming.  She's a widow with no man in the house to force her hand on this issue.  She says she doesn't really see a difference between regular and HDTV programming, so why pay more?  I really can't argue with her logic.  My brother and my honey, though, they've got plenty of arguments for her logic.  But, I digress.

A decision had to be made before kick-off...

My honey didn't want to watch the game at my mom's house because she didn't have HD programming.  Instead, he wanted to watch the game alone, just the two of us, at our house.  Well, what kinda fun was that supposed to be?  Football needs couch coaching, friendly rivalries, and boisterous cheering.  As we discovered during the Rumble in the Rumpus Room, with just me and my honey watching the game, there would be none of that.
So, there we were.  I wanted to go to Mom's, he wanted to stay home. 
No matter what we decided, somebody was going to be pouting at one o'clock. 

I consulted with my mother on how to solve the problem.  I consulted with his mother on how to solve the problem.  I consulted with friends on facebook. I got a variety of answers.  My mom said to let him have his way this week and then next week we could do it my way.  His mom said we should compromise and each do what we wanted to do - he'd stay home and I'd go to my mom's house.  My friends on Facebook said I needed to put my foot down and get my way on this one.  Color me confused!  What was I to do?

His mother's advice was unacceptable.  We operate as a team.  If we went our separate ways then nobody was going to be happy.  I'd have been at my mom's missing him and he'd have been at home missing me.  Negative, ghost rider, that pattern was full of problems!  My friends' advice just seemed like asking for trouble.  Why pick a fight to get my own way?  We're not really a couple who fights or argues or even very often disagrees on anything.  Plus, my honey has a habit of refusing to engage in arguments.  He says life is too short to fight over unimportant stuff.  Man, is that ever annoying to hear when I'm seeing red and gunning for a fight!  A temper tantrum or picking a fight wasn't going to work for this, either.

My mother's advice ended up being the play I decided to call, which was really funny because she gave me the good advice and then followed it with, "but I really want you guys to come over for Sunday dinner and the game."  Sorry, Mom!  You shot yourself in the foot there by telling me what I should do before you told me what you actually wanted me to do.  So, my honey got his way and we stayed home to watch the game on our big screen HDTV.

I was the one pouting at one o'clock because I wasn't happy about our game day decision.  My honey was so concerned about my poutiness that he actually played "Hail To The Redskins" for me on his cell phone when the Skins scored.  It was kinda cute as it went against the grain for him to listen to another team's fight song.

It wasn't all that bad watching the game at home, though don't let my honey know I said that.  My brother and I facebooked back and forth throughout the game, so I had some couch coaching going on there.  Of course, he also suggested I go down to the fuse box and kill the power to my house to force my honey to seek football refuge at my mother's house.  My sister-in-law seconded that suggestion.  What can I say?  They enjoy watching football with me as much as I enjoy watching it with them. 

The Bears were playing at the same time, but their game wasn't televised locally.  My honey was getting text updates on the game from ESPN throughout the afternoon.  He was celebrating and bragging and playing "Bear Down, Chicago Bears" on his phone with every point scored, so there was some friendly rivalry and boisterous cheering happening, too.  But, what really sealed the deal and made it a good game day for me was the half-time show my honey put on for me. ;)  Maybe that will become our new football tradition!



Goal accomplished!