Happy Father’s Day everybody! I hope you all have a wonderful day today celebrating the fathers in your life.

Just a little history for you…not surprisingly, Father’s Day came about as a result of the Mother’s Day holiday. A woman named Sonora Louise Smart Dodd who lived in Spokane Washington, heard a sermon on Mother's Day and then decided fathers should be honored in the same way. She was raised by a single dad, who raised her and her five siblings after his wife died, and Sonora wanted a holiday to pay tribute to her own father and others.

After conceiving her idea in 1909, Dodd drew up a petition recommending a national father's day. The Spokane Ministerial Association and the local Young Men's Christian Association supported it. Through Dodd's efforts, Spokane celebrated the first Father's Day on June 19, 1910. In the ensuing years, many resolutions to make the day an official national holiday were introduced, but it wasn't until 1972 that President Nixon signed into law a proposal to make Father's Day a permanent national observance on the third Sunday of June.

I was also raised for the most part by a single dad, and we had a lot of memorable Father’s Days. There was the year that I saved my change to buy a large chocolate chip cookie for my dad from the elementary school cafeteria. I had big plans to “carve” the cookie into the shape of a heart and give it to my dad. But when I tried to use the butter knife to shape the cookie into a heart, it just crumpled. My dad ended up getting a pile of cookie crumbs and a lot of tears, but he ate every last crumb.
A few years later, my brother and I (my sister slept in) decided to make our dad breakfast in bed. We made the coffee first, and then moved on to eggs and pancakes. Well, neither of us had ever made eggs or pancakes, and after the dog got way more pancakes than any dog should ever eat and we had set off the smoke alarm several times and used up all the eggs we had in the house…my dad ended up getting toaster waffles and a cup of coffee that had been microwaved 47 times to keep it hot while we butchered breakfast.

Of course there were also lots of coffee mugs and ties and little plaques that said things like, “Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a Dad.” One of my husband’s favorite Father’s Day gifts is a hat that says, “Worlds Best Dad and my Wife’s Biggest Child.” So, so true.

When it comes down to it, it isn’t really the gifts that matter, but the thoughts and love behind them. What dads really want is to know how much they are loved and appreciated, and maybe the chance to sleep in.

Although my own dad is far away today, I am thoroughly enjoying the day with my husband and kids. With nine kids, Josh is definitely a candidate for “dad of the year” and I love having a day to celebrate the role he cherishes so deeply.