Love You More!

So along with my feelings of inferiority on not saying Merry Christmas or Have A Great Weekend until the other person (thoughtfully AND sincerely) says it first, I feel the same way about I Love You. To combat that, whenever my wife or children would say, "I LOVE you!" when I was going to work, I felt it was like a defeated afterthought to say, "I love YOU." Kinda like, "Oh yeah, good point, uh, I love YOU!" So I decided to TRUMP their Love by saying, "Love You MORE!" Yeah, that'll get 'em. How can you beat the MORE thing? So then THEY retorted with the same, "Love YOU more!" you know, with the YOU emphasis. Dang.

So THEN it became a point (and I made up the rules) that the LAST one to say, "Love You MORE!" before the door shut WINS. (Always love a winner, right? Even in love.) So you'll often hear Love You MORE. Love YOU MORE. Love You MOST (hey, that's cheating). Love YOU Most whenever someone is leaving, ending a phone call, driving away.

All in all, there's a lot of love going around AND it's sincere. I think. Besides being the last one to say it when I leave for work (they've even called me in the car to say Love YOU MORE and then hang up -- is that love or sheer rudeness?), the ONLY thing that has left me speechless is when my youngest daughter blurts, "Love YOU MORE Blackout Infinity Crossies Don't Count!"

Again, a lot of love.