What a Difference One Year Makes

What a difference a year makes. I know that sounds obvious with everything that has happened but it hit me like a ton of bricks when a Facebook memory popped up today.

It was a year ago, that my daughter, Tara had a French exchange student staying at our house for two weeks. Her name was "Lucie" and they were two peas in a pod. There were so many things that they did together, they went to my mom's house to make applesauce, got "lost" in the Stoughton's Farm corn maze, and a lot more.

On Saturday, I was taking Tara to a friend's house and we passed by the arena. I said to Tara that if this year was like any other year, there is a good chance that we would be doing Chuck-a-Puck tonight at the game.

It was then that I realized that Tara and Lucie did something very special at the Binghamton Devils game while she was here. Then a Facebook memory popped up this morning that brought me the biggest pause and made me realize that things are SO MUCH DIFFERENT from a year ago.

Tara is a Chuck-a-Puck veteran and has helped me on the ice for over 10 years and Lucie was going to join us on the ice on October 19th, 2019. I was going to say "Ladies and gentlemen, CHUCK YOUR PUCKS" in French. Lucie had been teaching me the words but it sounded more like "Lenny and Gentle Ben, LICK YOUR PUKE."

However, when we got to the game, they were able to do something even better. It was the first hockey game that Lucie had ever been too and I was fortunate enough to get both of them a ride on the Zamboni between periods of the Binghamton Devils game.

They both had smiles from ear to ear for the rest of the night and one year later, it's bringing a HUGE smile to my face. So what's the biggest thing that's happened that makes you realize that it's different this year?