25 Nov Why Jimmy Fallon Should be a Marriage and Family Therapist

When it comes to buying my wife presents, she will tell you, it’s not an easy task—mainly because she doesn’t like to spend money…on herself. Oh, she will spend it on the kids, me, our extended family, people going on mission trips. She even tips like a boss. But since my money is our money, she doesn’t like me spending money on her. Needless to say, her birthday gift is never easy. But this year she made it super easy on me.

 

For the past few years, we have celebrated her birthday at her sister’s houseboat. “We” includes her family, her Mom and Dad, and her brother’s and sister’s families. Knowing the trip was coming up, she announced one day she knew exactly what she wanted for her birthday. This is where Jimmy Fallon comes in.

 

You see, we both love The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, at least we love watching clips from Jimmy Fallon on YouTube. (We are too old and too tired to stay up to watch him at 11:30.) Fallon truly seems to like his guests, and his humor is so stinking ridiculous and silly. One bit he does on a regular basis is lip sync contests with his guests. You may find it stupid, but we love it a stupid amount.

 

So for her birthday gift, my wife announced, “I only want one thing for my birthday. I want EVERYONE attending my birthday party to show up to the houseboat ready to lip sync their favorite song.” She and I decided we would lip sync “The Time Our Life” duet from Dirty Dancing. The kids had their songs and I made them practice often. But here was my fear—her brother and Dad are football coaches, and I was pretty sure they were not the lip sync contest types. Did they ever prove me wrong.

 

To my surprise, everyone, including her dad and brother, showed up ready, complete with lyrics memorized and some moves in mind. Everyone was hilarious, but her mom and dad stole the show by closing with “My Girl.”

 

Throughout their performance, her mom and football coach dad kept pointing to her every time they hit the lyrics, “My Girl.” Everything up to that moment has been silly, but that moment mattered. We all teared up a bit. Who would have thought? Oh how I loved watching Nancie watch everyone else. She was enjoying it with her whole self, laughing from the deepest parts of her, and even crying a bit at the end.

 

Jimmy Fallon, thank you for modeling that laughter and fun can be the best gift we can give each other! Thank you for truly celebrating people through outlandish interaction and play. (Oh and by the way, Jimmy, next June my wife and I are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary in New York, and we would rather see your show than Wicked, the Statue of Liberty or Central Park. How about hooking a brother up with some tickets?

No Comments

Post A Comment