“Mommy, the burglar walked in the front door!”

“The burglar? Where did he go?”

[I enter the family room where everyone is gathered. I see the ‘excitable’ kid who is a friend of my great niece running into her own mother’s arms while my great niece runs up to me and yells, “it’s my uncle!”]

“… oh don’t worry, sweetie, he’s my brother!” [says my sister to the fearful friend there to celebrate my great niece’s party].

“He’s dressed in all that black leather stuff. Don’t burglars dress that way?” [This kid has been watching waaaay too much television]

… so began a visit to my great niece’s tenth birthday party last Saturday.

I was wearing what some may call, “casual leather.” That is, a nice pair of leather jeans, a long-sleeve t-shirt, and a leather jacket. Oh, and boots, of course (Chippewa engineers.)

The house was filled with lots of people. My great niece and a bunch of her young friends, some of their parents, my niece and nephew (the birthday girl’s mother and father), my sister (grandma) and her husband (granddad). Sheesh, it makes me feel so old to have a great niece who is 10 years old, a niece who is 44, and a sister old enough to have several grandchildren already. (I am almost the youngest in our family).

I wear boots and leather regularly as I go about my daily life. What I wore on Saturday is but one example of my regular casual leather wear. But this is the first time anyone has really said much of anything — and to be called a “burglar!” I was bursting with laughter, as was my sister. Both of us got to laughing so long and hard that we couldn’t catch our breath, and had tears rolling down our cheeks. The rest of the adults were rather speechless watching the two of us “lose it.” We get that way sometimes.

While my sister and I were guffawing away, my niece piped up and said to the other adults who don’t know me, “don’t worry, they just get that way. Just let them be, they’re return to normal eventually.” Then she muttered something that sounded like, “well, it depends on how they define normal!”

I love my family…

Life is short: wear your boots and leather!