Holly Jolly 6mass

Topless Pasta Night, Christmas Style.

Sometimes I wonder if I will run out of things to blog about. Maybe my memory will finally give up and I will have nothing to go on? But then something happens like tonight and I think I can probably go on forever.

Kat and I have a very good friend named Heather. Heather was at OBU a year behind me, I met her just after her freshman orientation, Kat met her soon after that. Heather sang at our wedding, and was there for much of the trouble, I mean fun we had at OBU.

Just before Matthew was born, Heather moved back to Oklahoma City and we reconnected. To know Heather is to love her and both of my boys are enamored of her. As Matthew gets older it really makes me smile to see how similar those two September babies are.

When Paul was about four, he and Matthew VERY messy eaters, (not that this has changed). In an effort to reduce laundry stains and make for ease of clean up, when we had particularly messy foods for dinner, like spaghetti, it was often easier to let them take their shirts off before dinner. More than once, not wanting to get tomato sauce on my work shirts I joined them. And topless pasta night was born.


It was strictly a family event, and Kathleen prefers that I point out that although she cooked the meal, and ate the meal, not once did she ever engage in topless pasta night. One night as our family was eating dinner sans camisas, out of the blue my Paul innocently says, “how come we never have Heather come to dinner? We should invite her, and have spaghetti when she comes”. Heather is very proud of her hourglass figure so there is much humor in the idea of her joining us for topless pasta night and when we told her everyone got a good laugh.

The next time she came for dinner we did NOT have spaghetti, but we were having some noodle dish, and as we sat down at the table, my Paul shyly asked if we all needed to take our shirts off. Heather accused me of putting him up to it, but I was innocent. Again we all got a good laugh and for years we told that story and laughed.

Last year, when I was traveling back and forth to Denver so much Heather moved in and stayed with us for a season. She was a great help to Kathleen and she and the boys really bonded over some silliness. One of the silly things was that when Heather had been with us about a month, Kathleen made spaghetti for dinner, and right before Heather came to the table, my Matthew suggested we all take our shirts off and surprise her. So we did, and once again I got accused of setting that up. Kathleen and Heather laughed but declined to join in with the topless pasta night so we put our shirts back on.

I am sure you are all chuckling to read this, but what does it have to do with Christmas? Tonight at dinner we had spaghetti, and just as we were finished, Mathew whipped off his shirt and said, “Hey it is Topless Pasta Night!” I took his picture to send to Heather, or at least I tried to. Matthew and Paul got the giggles and I had a hard time getting a good shot.

This story has 3 morals. #1 I am not the lecherous old man I get credited for, and #2 Merle Jennings was right, the friends we made at OBU are for life, #3 Christmas silliness can be about anything.